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The Mayflower Compact : from Bradford's History. 



Source-Book of 

American History 



Edited for Schools and Readers 



BY 



ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Pn.a 

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



WITH PRACTICAL INTRODUCTIONS 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO , Ltd. 
1903 

All rights reser-ved 






Copyright, 1899, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped June, 1899. Reprinted October, 
1899; August, 1900; Februarj', October, 1903. 






l.^' 



Norivood Press 

J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith 

Norwood Mass. U. S. A. 



Preface 



THIS little book is an attempt to do for the study of American 
history what the photographer does for the study of art, — to 
collect a brief series of illustrations which, without including a hundredth 
part of the whole field, may give examples of the things most important 
to know. Yet, as no sensible person expects to get a knowledge of art 
simply from seeing a series of lantern slides, so it is not expected that 
the history of the United States can be learned from a Source Book, 
without. the intelligent use of a good text-book or narrative history to 
bring out the connection and to suggest the many great men, large 
events, and broad movements which in this small collection of reprints 
have no mention. What I hope is that these brief records may awaken 
interest in the books from which they came and in the men who wrote 
them ; that a clearer idea of what our ancestors did and thought and 
suffered may be had from their own writings ; that the book may serve 
as a part of the material necessary for topical study ; and, above all, that 
it may throw a human interest about the necessarily compact and factful 
statements of text-books. 

In making up the texts I have taken some pains to give an object- 
lesson in the methods of using and citing books, by adopting the severe 
principles of scientific work in history ; in every case I have sought for 
the earliest authentic edition of printed material ; every omission is indi- 
cated by periods (...); the text is reprinted precisely, necessary 
corrections or glosses being indicated by brackets or in the margin ; and 
to every extract is appended an exact reference to the source from which 
it came. Acknowledgments of the use of materials are thus in every 
case made by reference to the editions used ; I am under much obh- 
gation to the owners of copyright material, who have most fully and 
generously given their permission to reprint extracts. 



vi Preface 

The facsimile illustrations are intended to suggest to young people 
the kind of manuscript and other material with which historians are 
familiar. For the frontispiece nothing more characteristic of Puritan sen- 
timent, Puritan government, and Puritan hand-writing could be found 
than the Mayflower Compact of 1620. The two pieces of Continental 
currency show the rude engraving and printing of the time, as well as 
the financial devices of the Revolution. Charles Carroll of Carrollton's 
letter on his fugitive slaves is a rare example of the business-like fashion 
in which the best planters looked upon their chattels. The extracts 
from the final Proclamation of Emancipation show Lincoln's character- 
istic hand-writing, in one of the most famous of the sources of American 
history. 

I make no excuse for reproducing the few documents as exactly 
as possible ; and I make none for printing extracts from books exactly 
as they appear in the original editions, with any peculiarities of gram- 
mar or speUing which now would be errors. In the seventeenth cen- 
tury, and even in the eighteenth, there were as yet no fixed rules on 
such subjects ; and town clerks and other writers often had Httle book 
education. Pupils of the age of those for whom this book is intended 
will not find their own style affected by these obvious deviations from 
modern usage ; and to reduce the quaint and wandering sentences of 
our ancestors to order would be like putting Cotton Mather into the 
silk hat and plain black coat of modern society. 

The work of preparation has been interesting to me ; I hope the 
result may be interesting to those who use it. Though I have chosen 
extracts which would bring out the two sides of great controversies, I 
take no other responsibility for the sentiments herein expressed than 
that of one who introduces a set of living, individual people, who speak 
for themselves of their lives, their interests, their standards, and their 
conception of their country's history. 

ALBERT BUSHNELL HART. 

Cambridge, April 2. 1899. 



Contents 



PRACTICAL INTRODUCTIONS 



I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 
V. 



The Use of Sources .... 
Materials for Source Study 
The Sources in Secondary Schools . 
The Sources in Normal Schools 
Subjects for Topical Study from Sources 



CHAPTER I — DISCOVERIES 

Christopher Columbus : 

Discovery of the Nerv World, 1492 
Peter Martyr d'Anghiera : 

An English Voyage to North America, 1497 
Francisco Vasquez Coronado : 

A Spanish Exploration, 1541 
Anonymous : 

An English Plundering Voyage, 1 5 78-15 79 
Anonymous : 

The First English Exploration, 1607 
Samuel Sieur de Champlain : 

A French Exploration, 1615 . 

CHAPTER II — CONDITIONS OF SETTLEMENT 
John Evelyn : 

Life in England, 1 65 2-1 668 .... 
Reverend William Castell : 

Reasons for Emigration, 1641 
Henry Spelman : 

Indian Life, 1609-1613 
John Sadler : 

Requiremetits of an Efnigrani, 1634 
John Josselyn : 

Some Rarities of Neiu England, 1663-1671 
Thomas Ash : 

Praise of Indian Corn, 1682 . 



PAGE 

. xvii 

XX 

. xxiv 
. xxix 
xxxiii 



4 
6 

9 
II 

14 

18 
21 

23 
26 
29 

32 



viii Contents 



CHAPTER III — FIRST ERA OF COLONIZATION 

PAGE 

13. Captain John Smith: 

Settlement of Virginia, 1 607 ..,.,..,. 33 

14. Doctor William Barlow : 

The King and tlie Puritans, 1 604 '37 

15. Governor William Bradford: 

Settlement of Plymouth, 1 620 39 

16. Father Isaac Jogues : 

Settlement of New Amsterdam, \b\t^-\b^^ 42 

17. Governor Thomas Dudley : 

Planting of Massachusetts, 1627-1631 45 

18. Jaspar Dankers and Peter Sluyter : 

Conditions of Maryland, 1632 ........ 48 

19. Henry Wolcott, Jr. : 

Foundation of Governinent in Connecticut, 1638 . . . . • 5' 

20. Secretary Nathaniel Morton : 

Foundation of Rhode Island, 1636 ........ 52 

21. Governor John Winthrop : 

Foundation of Neiv Hampshire, 1637-1639 ...... 55 

CHAPTER IV — SECOND ERA OF COLONIZATION 

22. Governor Sir Edmund Andros : 

An Account of Neiv York, 1678 58 

23. John Fenwick : 

New Jersey " a Healthy Pleasant, and Plentiful Country ^^ 

1675 62 

24. Late Governor John Archdale : 

Description of Carolina, 1 665-1695 ....... 65 

25. Richard Townsend : 

Settlement of Pennsylvania, 1682 ........ 67 

26. Reverend William Eldmundson : 

A Journey through Delaware, 1676 ....... 69 

27. General James Edward Oglethorpe (?) : 

Progress of Georgia, 1733 . . . . . . . . -7' 

CHAPTER V — COLONIAL LIFE IN THE SEVENTEENTH 
CENTURY 

28. Governor John Winthrop : 

Ne7v England Life, 1630-1635 , . 74 

29. Thomas Lech ford: 

Church Services, 1642 .......... 77 



PAGE 

30. William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson : 

A Quaker Warning, 1659 ......... 80 

31. Reverend Cotton Mather: 

A Witch Trial, 1692 82 

32. Ordinances of New Amsterdam : 

Life in New York, 1 647- 1 658 85 

33. Robert Holden : 

The Trade of the Colonies, 1679 88 

34. Anonymous : 

Plantation Life in Virginia, 1648 9^ 

35. Virginia Assembly : 

Slavery in Virginia, 1667-1680 ........ 9^ 

CHAPTER VI — RIVALS FOR EMPIRE 

36. Henry Sieur de Tonty : 

La Salle on the Mississippi, 1 681-1682 96 

37. Anonymous : 

Destruction of Deerfeld, 1704 ........ 98 

38. Professor Peter Kalm : 

The French Trade with the Indians, 1 749 ...... lOO 

39. Colonel George Washington : 

Braddock's Defeat, 1755 103 

40. Francois Bigot : 

Capture of Quebec, 1 759 I05 

CHAPTER VII — COLONIAL LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY 

41. Colonel John Seymour: 

Discomforts of Colonial IJfe, 1 708 108 

42. Reverend George Whitefield : 

The Great Awakening in New England, \1\o ..... 109 

43. Ebenezer Cook : 

A Satire on Tobacco Planters, 1 708 .Hi 

44. William Black : 

Social Life in Philadelphia, 1744 1 15 

45. Professor Peter Kalm : 

The Toivn of New York, 1748 1 17 

46. Colonel William Byrd : 

A Southern Criticism of Slavery, 1736 ....... II9 

47. Alexander Graydon : 

A Colonial School- Boy, I'jbo-i'j^iy 122 



X Contents 



CHAPTER VIII — COLONIAL GOVERNMENT 

PAGB 

48. James Earl of Stanhope : 

The English Council for Trade a7id Plantations, 1715 . ■ . . . 124 

49. Samuel Purviance, Jr. : 

How to Manage Elections, 1765 . . . , , . , .126 

50. Professor Peter Kalm : 

The Governor and Assembly in New York, 1748 . . . . .128 

51. Agent Benjamin Franklin : 

Objections to Governing of Colonies by Instructions, 1772 . . . 131 

52. Boston Town Records : 

A Colonial Town-Meeting, 1729 ........ 132 

CHAPTER IX — THE REVOLUTION 

53. Deacon John Tudor : 

77/1? Boston Tea-Party, I'JTi . 137 

54. Reverend John Witherspoon : 

" Condiict of the British Ministry,^' I'j'jt^ ...... 138 

55. Reverend Andrew Burnaby : 

Undeniable Supremacy of Parliament, 1775 ...... 141 

56. Anonymous : 

" The American Patriots Prayer^'' 1776 ...... 143 

57. Reverend William Emerson: 

Battle of Lexington and Concord, 1775 144 

58. Delegate John Adams: 

Drafting the Declaration of Independence, X'j'jd ..... I47 

59. General George Washington : 

Report of the Battle of Princeton, l']']'] 149 

60. Eliza Wilkinson : 

A Southern Lady^s Experience of War, 1780 . . . . .151 

61. Captain Georg Pausch : 

Hard Fighting at Saratoga, 1777 ........ 154 

62. Robert Morton : 

I'he Baneful Influence of Paper Money, X'j']'] 157 

63. Anonymous : 

A Ballad on Cornwallis, 178 1 . . . . . . . • '59 

CHAPTER X — THE CONFEDERATION AND THE 
CONSTITUTION 

64. J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur : 

IVhat is an Atnerican ? 1 782 ........ 161 

65- Judge Benjamin Huntington: 

Life in Congress, 1783 164 



1715—1^12 xi 

PAGE 

66. Jean Pierre Brissot de Warville: 

The West, 1788 . . " 166 

67. Reverend Manasseh Cutler : 

The Inner History of the Northivest Ordinance , \'j%'j . . , .169 
_68. Delegate George Mason : 

Objections to the Constitution, 1787 . . . . . . .172 

69. Colonel Jonathan B. Smith : 

The Political Harvest Time, X'j'iZ ° '^IS 

70. Francis Hopkinson : 

'' The New Roof," x'j'iZ 178 

CHAPTER XI — MAKING A GOVERNMENT, 1789-1801 

71. Senator William Maclay : 

A Democratic View of Washington, \i%()-\'](y> l8l 

72. Representative Fisher Ames : 

Speech on the Tariff, 1789 .183 

73. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson : 

A Question of Cotnpromise, 1790 . . 186 

74. Chief Justice John Jay : 

Maritime Grievances, 1794 . . 188 

75. C. C. Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry: 

" The X Y Z Despatches," i'](jy 191 

76. Richard Carter : 

A Case of Impressment, 1799 194 

CHAPTER XII — JEFFERSON'S POLICY, 1801-1808 

77. Theodore Dwight : 

Election of fefferson, 1801 . . . . . , . . • . 197 

78. President Thomas Jefferson : 

Acquisition of louisiana, 1803 ........ 200 

79. Midshipman Basil Hall : 

" Blockading a Neutral Port," 1 804 ....... 202 

80. Patrick Gass : 

lewis and Clark's Oregon Expedition, 1804-1805 .... 206 

81. Representative Josiah Quincy : 

Effect of the Embargo, 1808 ......... 209 

CHAPTER XIII— THE WAR OF 1812 

82. Francis James Jackson : 

Impressions of America, 1810 ........ 212 

83. President James Madison : 

Causes of the War, i8i2 214 



Xll 



Contents 



84. Captain Isaac Hull : 

Capture of the Guerriere, l8l2 . . . .• . " . , ^ . 216 

85. Reverend George Robert Gleig: 

Capture of Washington, 1814 . i 218 

86. Major Arsene Lacarriere Latour : 

Battle of A^e%v Orleans, 1815 220 

87. Commissioner Albert Gallatin : 

Discussion of the Peace, 1814 . o 223 



CHAPTER XIV — CONDITIONS OF NATIONAL GROWTH, 
1815-1830 

88. John Melish : 

Boston and Neigkboriftg Towns, 1 806 ....... 226 

89. Colonel Thomas Jefferson Randolph : 

The Virginia Gentlemati, 1801-1809 228 

90. Reverend Timothy Flint : 

Religious Life in the West, 1828 . 231 

91. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams : 

Missouri Compromise, 1 820 ......... 234 

92. Morris Birkbeck : 

A Settler in Illinois, 1817 . . ., 237 

93. Surgeon Henry Bradshaw Fearon : 

Amusements in New Orleans, 1818 240 



CHAPTER XV — ABOLITIONISTS, 1835-1841 



94. Reverend John Rankin : 

A Western Abolition Argument, 1824 

95. Governor George McDuffie : 

A Southern Defence of Slavery, 1835 

96. William Lloyd Garrison : 

An Anti-Abolitionist Mob, 1835 . 

97. George William Featherstonhaugh : 

The Internal Slave- Trade, 1834 . 

98. Charity Bowery: 

A Slave's Narrative, 1844 . 

99. John Greenleaf Whittier : 

Fare-well of a Slave Mother, 1838 
100. Henry Box Brown : 

A Fugitive's Narrative, 1848 
101 Salmon Portland Chase : 

A Political Abolitionist, 1845 



242 
244 
248 
251 
255 
258 
260 
263 



i8i 2—1862 xiii 

CHAPTER XVI — TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1841-1853 

PAGE 

102. Charles Augustus Davis : 

Jacksoii's Responsibility, 1833 ........ 266 

103. Francis Parkman, Jr. : 

The Oregon Trail, 1846 268 

104. James Russell Lowell: 

A Satire on the Mexican War, 1846 . . . , , . .271 

105. Reverend Walter Colton : 

At the Gold Fields, \^i,Z 276 

106. Senator Henry Clay : 

Compromise of 18^0 279 

CHAPTER XVII — SLAVERY CONTEST, 185 1-1860 

107. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. : 

The Rescue of Shadrach, 1 85 1 . 282 

108. Representative Thomas Hart Benton : 

A Criticism of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1 854 284 

109. Erastus D. Ladd : 

Troubles in Kansas, 1855 ......... 287 

1 10. Justice John McLean: 

The Dred Scott Decision, 1856 ........ 290 

111. Senator Stephen A. Douglas: 

A Criticism of Lincoln, 1858 ........ 291 

112. Captain John Brown : 

John Brorvn^s Last Speech, 1859 294 

113. Alexander H. Stephens : 

Slavery the Corner-Stone of the Confederacy, 1861 .... 296 

1 14. Captain Abner Doubleday : 

Attack on Fort Sutnter, 1861 299 

CHAPTER XVIII — CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865 

115. Reverend Morgan Dix : 

The Rousing of the A^orth, 1 86 1. . 303 

116. Edmund Clarence Stedman : 

Battle of Bull Run, 1861 305 

117. George Cary Eggleston : 

The Southern Soldier, 1861-1865 308 

118. Reverend Francis Nathan Peloubet and Reverend George Lansing Taylor : 

Supplies for the Wounded, 1862 . . . . . . . .311 

119. Flag-Officer David Glasgow Farragut : 

Farragut at Nexo Orleans, 1862 . 313 



XIV 



Contents 



1 20. Francis Bicknell Carpenter : 

Proclamation of Emancipation, 1 86* . . . , , , 'S'S 

121. Doctor Albert Gaillard Hart : 

In the Thick of the I-igkt, l2,6^ 318 

122. "A Lady": 

Cave Life in a Besieged City, 1863 320 

123. New York Tribune : 

Battle of Gettysburg, 1 863 . , 323 

124. President Abraham Lincoln : 

The IVar and Slavery, 1864 ........ 327 

125. General Horace Porter : 

Surrender of Lee, 1865 329 

126. James Russell Lowell: 

Abraham Lincoln, 1865 333 



CHAPTER XIX — RECONSTRUCTION, 1865-1871 

127. Sidney Andrews : 

Condition of the South, 1865 

128. Elizabeth Hyde Botume : 

A Negro School, 1862 ..... 

129. General Robert E. Lee: 

A Southerner's Advice on Reconstruction, 1865 

130. Representative Thaddeus Stevens: 

Congressional Reconstruction, \?>6i) 

131. General Oliver Otis Howard: 

A Military Governor in Louisiana, 1865-1866 

132. Attorney-General Daniel Henry Chamberlain : 

Failure of Reconstruction, 1871 



336 
339 
342 
344 
346 
349 



CHAPTER XX — UNION RESTORED, 1871-1885 

133. Samuel Jones Tilden : 

Iniquities of the Tweed Ring, 1869-1871 352 

134. Caleb Gushing : 

Treaty of Washington, 1871 355 

135. John Greenleaf Whittier : 

" Centennial Hymn," 1876 ......... 35^ 

136. New York World : 

Resujftption of Specie Payments, 1879 ....... 360 

137. George William Curtis : 

Workings of Civil Service Reform, i88l . . . . . • 363 



i862— 1899 ^^ 

PAGE 

138. Thomas Jefferson Morgan : 

Our rreaime)U of the Indians, 1891 366 

139. James Bryce : 

Chai'ader of the Americans, 1888 369 

CHAPTER XXI— THE SPANISH WAR, 1895-1899 

140. William J. Starks : 

Troitbles in Cuba, 1S67-1873 373 

141. Don Enrique Jose Varona : 

A Cuban Indictment of Spanish Rule, \%()<^ 376 

142. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt : 

The Rough Riders at the Front, \%q% 380 

143. General Francis Vinton Greene : 

The Conditions of the Philippines, 1898 ...... 382 

144. President William McKinley : 

A Review of the Spanish War, 1898 385 

145. John Davis Long: 

The Future of the Republic, 1895 390 

INDEX 393 



Illustrations 

The Mayflower Compact, 1620 ........ Frontispiece 

Specimens of Continental Currency, 1776 ...... To face p. 156 

Letter on Fugitive Slaves, by Charles Carroll, 1826 ...."" 244 

Extracts from the final Proclamation of Emancipation, by Abraham 

Lincoln, 1863 « « ^29 



Source Book of American History 



PRACTICAL INTRODUCTIONS 
I. The Use of Sources 

WITH the use which investigators make of sources, as a basis for 
elaborate historical writing, this book has nothing to do, except 
to suggest that upon such materials, vast in amount and bewildering in 
variety, rest all that we really know about the history of times earlier 
than the memory of living men. Even the investigator nowadays does 
not necessarily examine for himself every record of the events with which 
he deals : he may accept, and almost always does accept, some state- 
ments of facts gathered for him by other writers who have themselves 
examined the ground. It is not the conception of the editor that young 
and inexperienced boys and girls can find in this book material broad 
enough to serve as the sole basis for generalizations ; or that they can 
construct a complete narrative for themselves out of any amount of 
material : the Source Book is meant to supplement, not to supplant the 
text-book. 

In schools, and even in most college classes, the sources have a very 
different office : they are to act as adjuncts to historical narrative, by 
illustrating it, and making it vivid ; as by analyzing a few flowers the 
young student of botany learns some plant structure, and accepts the 
rest from the text-book, so the student of history by intimate acquaint- 
ance with a few writers of contemporary books finds his reading in 
secondary works easier to understand. 

Upon the subject of source-study in schools there is as yet little in 
print. Charles W. Colby, in the Introduction to his Selections from the 
Sources of English History (1899), very suggestively discusses the uses 
of sources. In the Report of the Madison Conference, included in the 



xviii Introductions 

Report of the Cotn?nittee [of Ten] on Secondary School Studies (1893), 
§§15, 33, sources are treated incidentally in connection with topical 
study. In the Atnerican History Studies, issued by the University of 
Nebraska, are hints and suggestions. The University of Pennsylvania 
issues a little tract, The Use of Original Sources in the Teaching of 
History, which has helpful suggestions and includes a brief list of col- 
lections available for schools in various fields of history. The editor of 
this book has prefixed an essay on this subject to each of the volumes of 
American History told by Cotitemporaries. Almost the only general 
discussion of the subject is in one of the appendices to The Study of 
History in Schools, Report of the Committee of Seven (1899), printed 
also in Report of the American Historical Association for 1898. The 
subject is taken up in connection with other topics in the printed pro- 
ceedings of the two Associations of Colleges and Preparatory Schools — 
that of New England, and that of the Middle States ; and also in the 
proceedings of the New England History Teachers* Association for 1898 
and 1899, and of the American Historical Association for 1897. 

The use of sources in secondary and normal schools is described 
below by experts ; it is therefore necessary here only to allude to some 
of the general advantages of sources, and to suggest some cautions in 
their use. First of all, as reading matter, even brief sources have the 
advantage of lively narratives on interesting subjects ; and one cannot 
read extracts from men like John Evelyn, Captain John Smith, Cotton 
Mather, Whittier, or Lincoln, without desiring to know more about them 
and their times ; but so much depends upon a writer's character, his 
truthfulness, his opportunities, his prejudices, that it is not safe to take 
sources at haphazard, without some one to vouch for them. 

The use of sources enforces on the mind what ought to be familiar to 
any pupil in history : that the text-book grows out of such material, directly 
or at second hand ; and that the knowledge of the writer of history goes 
no farther than the sum of his sources. On the Revolution, for instance, 
the pupil must reahze that the books quote only a few out of hundreds 
of sources, and that generalization from narrow bases is dangerous. 

Sources may very well furnish sufficient types of oft-repeated experi- 
ence : for instance, from the text-book the pupil gets the impression of 



Use of Sources xix 

the number of voyages of discovery, and of the cross-relations of the 
Spanish, Portuguese, French, Enghsh, Dutch, and Swedes in the new 
world during two centuries. But the general aim and results of those 
voyages are well enough set forth in the seventeen pages of Chapter I, 
which includes one Spanish voyage and one Spanish land exploration, 
two English sea-voyages and one land exploration, and one French 
exploration. Since it is a common experience that the illustration fixes 
the principle in mind, and not the principle the illustration, it is fair to 
expect that these illustrative voyages will serve to make vivid the con- 
secutive narrative of explorations in general. In the same way, colonial 
life has many phases, and it would take years of study in a large library 
of sources to get an idea of how our forefathers lived and thought ; but 
the illustrative extracts in Chapter V, below, show in detail something of 
a few phases of social life, of church services, of witchcraft delusions, 
of trade, and of slave life ; and they will serve to explain the general and 
necessarily sweeping statements of text-books. 

History has two functions : to tell us what has happened, and to tell 
us why the men of old time let it so happen. Perhaps the most diffi- 
cult problem for the teacher is to bring home to the minds of pupils 
how differently other people have looked at things. Our own slavery 
contest is an example : freedom seems to us normal, and we can under- 
stand neither the South nor the North unless we let people who lived in 
the midst of slavery speak for themselves. One has only to take a suc- 
cession of statements of facts about the slavery contest out of the best 
text-books, and then state the same thing out of the narratives of fugi- 
tives and the apologies of slave-holders, to see whether secondary 
narrative or source leaves the deeper impression on the mind. A 
combination of the two makes it possible to see more clearly both the 
significance and the relation of events. 

This book is not prepared with reference to any particular text-book ; 
wherever a good, straightforward, accurate, narrative history is used, 
which deals with what is really important in the history of the nation, 
the extracts in this volume may be brought in to supplement the 
accounts of special episodes, and to furnish a background of reality 
and personal character. 



XX Introductions 



II. Materials for Source Study 

ANY well-chosen set of extracts, each long enough to be character- 
istic, and all together broad enough to cover the main episodes of 
American history, will serve to illuminate the study ; but schools should 
have at least a small library of complete volumes, both to extend the 
interest that may be raised by extracts, and to give material for topical 
work. Many people are startled at the idea that pupils can safely be 
trusted with " original sources," just as the same good people were 
startled at the idea of laboratories in chemistry or physics, or of sight 
reading in classics. There is nothing dangerous in sources if used for 
purposes which are within the abilities of pupils. Topics can well be 
prepared from secondary books which are fresh to the pupil ; but they 
can also be prepared from sources if you have them, and the quaintness 
and liveliness of much of this material make it more interesting to dig 
down through the crust of secondary works. The point of view must 
always be that the pupil's result is incomplete, because he has not time, 
material, or judgment to come to any final conclusion ; but that he learns 
what, but for use of sources, neither he nor his friends could know. A 
pupil cannot be expected to weigh conflicting evidence or to reconcile 
disagreements, but he can state things as he finds them. However simple 
his work and small his result, however far it may be from " original re- 
search," it is nevertheless to him a voyage of discovery ; and the state- 
ment of his results, if he really puts his mind upon it, is a creative act. 

To aid in such work a short list of desirable books may be suggested, 
containing only a few of the most important works in each field. 

Bibliographies of Sources 

Lists of select sources are to be found in various small books, — as 
William E. Foster's little pamphlet. References to the History of Presi- 
dential Admmistrations, 1789-1885 (New York, 1885), containing excel- 
lent classified references to biographies. Channing and Hart's Guide to 
the Study of American History (Boston, 1896) includes long classified 



Available Reprints xxi 

lists of sources, with exact titles. The editor of this book has prefixed 
lists of sources to each of the four volumes of Amet'icafi History told by 
Contemporaries. Good characterizations of the writers of sources may 
be found in H. T. Tuckerman's America and her Commentators (New 
York, 1864); and Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of 
America (8 volumes, Boston, 1886-89) is the greatest work of American 
historical bibliography. Sources may often be reached through the foot- 
notes and hsts of works cited in the standard secondary historians, 
especially Doyle, English in America, Bancroft (early edition), Frothing- 
ham. Rise of the Republic, Henry Adams, History, Von Hoist, Rhodes ; 
and in the more detailed biographies. 

Collections of Reprints available for Schools 

There are now four collections of related reprints in American his- 
tory, besides five series of leaflets, obtainable in single numbers or in 
quantities. Full sets of the nine works mentioned below, complete to 
the end of 1899, should cost all together about $45. 

American Colonial Tracts. Edited by George P. Humphrey (Roches- 
ter, 1 89 7-). — A monthly series of reprints, taken chiefly from the rare 
and expensive Force Tracts, and not collated with the originals. 

AfJierican History Leaflets. Edited by Albert Bushnell Hart and 
Edward Channing (New York, 1892-96). — Thirty numbers, chiefly 
documents ; some complete, others made up of short related pieces. 

American History Studies : Selections 7nade from the Sources. Edited 
by H. W. Caldwell (Lincoln, Nebraska, 189 7-). — Chiefly short related 
extracts illustrating some general subject. 

American History told by Contemporaries. Edited by Albert Bushnell 
Hart (4 volumes. New York, 1897-). — Made up substantially on the 
same plan as the Source Book, except that the extracts are longer, and 
include many more subjects and authors. 

American Orations : Studies in American Political History. Edited 
by Alexander Johnston, reedited by James Albert Woodburn (4 volumes, 
2d ed., New York, 1898). 

Select Docu?nents illustrative of the History of the United States. 



xxii Introductions 

Edited by William Macdonald (New York, 1898). — This volume 
covers the period 1 776-1861, and is made up chiefly of constitutional 
and political documents. A second volume, from 1861 down, is in 
preparation. 

Liberty Bell Leaflets. (Philadelphia, 1899-.) — Recently begun; 
thus far the numbers include only the history of the middle colonies. 

Library of American Literature frotn the Earliest Settlement to the 
Present Time. Edited by Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay 
Hutchinson (11 volumes, New York, 1888-90). — Extracts selected 
rather for their literary value than for their historical contents, but con- 
taining some of the choicest work of American statesmen and worthies ; 
an excellent set for a school library. 

Old South Leaflets. Edited by Edwin D. Mead (Boston, 1883-). — 
The earliest in the field ; now about ninety numbers ; texts not care- 
fully collated. 

Additional Sources desirable for Schools 

To go beyond the sets of reprints leads one into a great mass of 
material, most of which is of so much interest and value that it is hard 
to discriminate and select. What any particular school can buy and 
profitably use depends on its means and its geographical situation. In 
making up a school library it is very desirable to have good sets of 
material on the local and State history, including the history of any 
colony of which the territory or the State was at any time a part. 

1. Local Records. — Printed town or city records, of the place in 
which the school is situated, and of the most important places in the 
State ; where there are no local records, among the best of their kind 
are the Boston, Providence, New Amsterdam, Upland, Albany, Newark. 

2. State Records. — If none for the State in which the school is situ- 
ated, the best for general use are those of Plymouth, Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina ; most 
useful of all are the Documents relative to the Colonial History of thi 
State of New- York (15 vols.). 



Materials xxiii 

3. National Records. — Journals of the Continental Congress (three 
editions) ; Secret Journals. On the Constitutional Conventions, Elliotts 
Debates (5 vols.) is indispensable and easy to get. Under the Consti- 
tutional government, at least one set of congressional documents for a 
Congress (two years) ; any part of the printed debates is valuable, but 
especially for the years 1789-93, 1797-99, 1811-13, 1819-21, 1835-37, 
1849-51, 1853-55, 1859-61, 1863-65, 1S67-69. A set or a partial set 
of the Statutes at Large is desirable. The folio American State Papers 
(38 vols.) is rather common, and would be a mine for topical work on 
the period 1 789-1840. 

4. Publications of Learned Societies. — Every school ought to have a 
set of the publications of its local and state historical societies if pos- 
sible, or at least a partial set. The most valuable issues (nearly all 
relating to the period before 1789) are those of the societies of Maine, 
New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Haven, New York, New Jersey, 
Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Louisiana, and especially of Massa- 
chusetts, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. 

5. Works of Public Men. — Out of hundreds of statesmen the most 
important are Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, Hamilton, Jefferson, 
Madison, Gallatin, Monroe, Calhoun, Clay, Webster, Seward, Garfield, 
Sumner ; especially Washington, and Correspondence of the American 
Revolution (letters to Washington), and Lincoln {^Works^. 

6. Autobiographies and Reminiscences. — Any local author : John 
Quincy Adams, Benton, Hutchinson, Kemble, McCuUough ; especially 
Samuel Sewall, Franklin, William Maclay, Josiah Quincy, U. S. Grant, 
John and W. T. Sherman. 

7. Travels. — Those who have visited the locality or neighborhood : 
W. Bartram, Burnaby, Chambers, Chastellux, Crevecceur, James Hall; 
especially Bankers and Sluyter, Josselyn, Kalm, Olmstead, Bryce. 

8. Newspapers. — Difficult to handle and early worn out; hence 
hardly suitable for a school Hbrary. The most serviceable for historical 
work are Niles's Weekly Register, the National Intelligencer, and the 
Nation, covering in succession the period from 1815 to 1899; reprints 
of extracts from colonial newspapers make up several volumes of the 
New Jersey Archives. 



xxiv Introductions 



III. The Sources in Secondary Schools 

By ray GREENE HULING, Sc.D. 

HEADMASTER OF THE CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH HIGH SCHOOL 

THE last decade has witnessed a marked change in the teaching 
of history in secondary schools. What before was characteristic 
of a few favored localities has now become widespread both in theoretic 
acceptance and in actual practice. In aims and in methods the advance, 
though later in point of time, has been quite comparable as to quality 
with the changes that have given our pupils " originals " in geometry, 
and have introduced them to laboratory practice in the physical and 
biological sciences. The rapid growth of the movement is largely due 
to the open-mindednes.: of the teachers ; for, seeing the superior value 
to their pupils of the more strenuous work, they have eagerly welcomed 
methods which materially add to their own labors. Therefore the newer 
conceptions have caused the growth of associations of teachers ; and 
by the initiative of college instructors in this field have taken form in 
new requirements for admission to college. The interest aroused has 
also produced a considerable body of hterature, and especially has led 
to a demand for more abundant and adequate material to be used in 
daily work. To this demand the present volume is a direct and com- 
petent response. 

The most important element in the change is doubtless the emphasis 
now laid on the disciplinary aims of the study of history. It has always 
been held, and is yet held, that a body of well selected historical facts 
should be acquired. It is now believed, however, that these facts are 
not really acquired by children and youth merely by reading and 
memoriter work, and that a more effective way to train both memory 
and reason is so to organize these facts in the process of acquisition 
as to set up in the pupils' minds by repeated practice accurate and 
persistent intellectual habits, — in the secondary school the processes 
which are grouped under the terms, imagination, memory, judgment, 
and reasoning. It is also held that in these schools history should yield 



Secondary Schools xxv 

ethical ideals, stimulate right emotions, and thus train moral character ; 
that by means of it the pupil should become more facile and precise 
with tongue and pen ; and that when school ends for him, he should 
step forth the possessor of sufficient knowledge, sufficient interest, and 
sufficient power to warrant a continuance of historical study by private 
effort. It is hoped that the final outcome of the pursuit of history, even 
in the secondary schools, may be a constant application of the lessons 
of the past to the problems of the present, — the tendency to see all 
things in historical perspective. Certainly there are few richer gifts 
which these schools have to bestow. 

A natural result of this enlargement of purpose is a change to methods 
more adequate and more varied. A text-book is used, as before, to 
give a thread of continuity to the whole work, but it is no longer the 
exclusive rehance. Collateral reading is added in some variety. Atlases 
and maps are studied and reproduced. Objective illustrations, — pic- 
tures, weapons, specimens of dress, household utensils, and other realia, — 
are utilized as in the natural sciences. Then, in the class-room, tests are 
apphed to determine the reaction of the pupil's mind on this material : 
intelligent application is stimulated in a variety of ways, by requiring 
written summaries of assigned collateral reading, by calling for continu- 
ous oral statements of the course of events within a particular period, 
by short, sharp questions about definite facts, by impromptu or pre- 
pared discussions upon debatable questions. Skill in selection is trained 
by topical work, skill in judgment by instituting comparisons and search- 
ing for causes, skill in expression by the acceptance of none but well- 
written papers or recitations made in correct form. 

Inasmuch as there are differences of mental power among children 
in the secondary school, ranging in age as they do from thirteen 
to nineteen years, some care must be taken to adapt our aims and 
methods to the order of mental growth established by nature ; otherwise 
we shall be found demanding bricks without straw, or failing to utilize 
the full capacity of the learner. Obviously with the younger classes 
stress should be laid on the cultivation of the memory and the imagina- 
tion, and with the older increasingly upon the logical processes ; but 
during the whole period an appeal can be made by a discriminating 



xxvi Introductions 

teacher with safety and with hope of profit to all the activities which 
have been mentioned. 

But the teacher who welcomes the enlarged hopes concerning the 
study of history and values aright the more modern methods, finds cer- 
tain difificulties confronting him as soon as he essays the broader instruc- 
tion. Not to enumerate them all, let us mention one that is obvious. 
A well selected working library should be provided, wherein quality is 
of even more importance than quantity, desirable as is the latter ; and 
even a well chosen library is seen to be a bewildering field into which 
to turn boys and girls, to say nothing of some bewildered teachers. 
But so great is the advantage that may be derived from collateral read- 
ing, and from the ability to use books wisely as to contents and eco- 
nomically as to time, that no difificulties ought to be regarded as 
insurmountable until enough books of a suitable kind are obtained and 
efficient guides to their use have been found. 

Such a book and such a guide, combining a double office of helpful- 
ness, teachers of the history of our own land will henceforth have in this 
Source Book of American History. It is a compilation, to be sure, but 
the judgment displayed in the character, the length, the order, and the 
annotation of the selections reveals an unusual understanding of the 
needs of teachers and pupils in the secondary schools. The extracts 
are above all interesting in themselves, and for their liveliness will attract 
the attention of many who care more for literature than for history as 
such. They also throw a flood of light on the setting of historical 
episodes, helping us to see with the eyes of our forbears, and making 
the times of which they speak living scenes, almost visible before our 
faces. They come to our consciousness with the force of fresh testimony 
from eye-witnesses, and therefore imbed themselves within the memory 
and move the emotions as no narrative at second hand can possibly do. 
The stories they have to tell are often quaint in style, but they are easy 
to comprehend, and never so long in any case as to be tedious. The 
hard thing, indeed, will be not to read them all at a sitting, and so to 
diminish the freshness of their force when we desire them, on closer 
study, to yield their full aid in mental discipline. They whet our appe- 
tite and at the same time point to laden tables, whither we may turn at 



Secondary Schools xxvii 

our leisure, or our need, for ampler feasts. The antique form of the 
more ancient documents is retained for the sake of accuracy and of dis- 
tinctness of impression; yet nothing is left obscure for lack of due 
explanation. Their range covers the whole period of our history ; their 
variety is as broad as the capacity of youth for appreciation ; the mar- 
ginal comments are terse and sensible. One can scarcely conceive of 
a more efficient or more timely gift to historical instruction in the 
secondary school. 

Let us turn now to some consideration of the uses of which this little 
volume is capable as a means of realizing the aims of modern history 
work. We cannot, however, treat the matter exhaustively or otherwise 
than by the merest suggestion, which every teacher must amplify accord- 
ing to his judgment. 

Since school instruction is mainly through class work, and since ordi- 
narily all members of a class find it convenient to consult their most 
used books at one and the same time, there should be supplied as many 
copies of the Source Book as there are members of the class. A less 
number will be helpful, but will not yield the full service desirable. 
Among the younger pupils its first use is to minister to the stimulation 
of interest and the development of historical imagination. As maturity 
warrants, it may be employed in a search for motives, in comparisons, 
and in the determination of logical relations. In classes of all ages, it 
may be made the means of illuminating the narrative of the text-book, 
of stimulating curiosity so as to lead students farther afield, and of culti- 
vating intelligent reading and competent expression. An appropriate 
selection from this volume should be made a part of the assignment as 
reading collateral to the text or to the topic under consideration, and 
the definite time for its completion should be stated. When that time 
arrives, in connection with the ordinary recitation, the pupils should be 
led to reproduce the picture given in the selection read, to mention 
what new facts have been gleaned from it, to indicate what they like or 
especially dislike in the narrative, and otherwise to comment upon their 
reading. At times they should be asked to present written summaries 
of the incidents mentioned or the personal characteristics described. 
Later on this written work may take the form of comparisons and of 



xxviii Introductions 

inferences drawn from them. For instance, in the first selection, 
Columbus shows us the simple, credulous spirit of the West Indian 
natives, and their liberality toward the newcomers, whom they deemed 
"beings of a celestial race." In the sixth selection, Champlain recounts 
the cruelties practised on enemies by his savage allies, the Hurons. In 
the ninth, Spelman makes a third contribution to our knowledge of the 
customs of the natives. Later we have other pictures of them by the 
Sieur de Tonty, by an unknown Puritan, by Peter Kalm, by Patrick 
Gass and by Commissioner Morgan. These varying accounts, as they 
come in due course, will lead to natural comparisons and discussion, all 
tending to make definite a composite portrait of the Aborigines, and to 
increase intellectual power. With somewhat older students, it will not 
be hard to stimulate a deeper search into the content of these pages. 
Many will be interested to see if they can find from the documents 
themselves, without accepting any hints from the notes, whether the 
several authors of the nine selections numbered from 53 to 61 were in 
heart "for us" or "against us" in the Revolutionary War ; and they 
will be glad to give reasons for their opinions. The admirable topics 
which appear in the first introduction will abundantly furnish suggestions 
for severer requirements. 

Yet after all the sight of this Source Book may elicit from some hard- 
worked teacher the frank objection, " But it takes more time ! " No 
better answer was ever made than by the late and lamented Mary 
Sheldon Barnes : " Good friend, it does ; and it takes more time to 
solve a problem in arithmetic than to read its answer ; and more time 
to read a play of Shakespeare than to read that Shakespeare was the 
greatest dramatist of all the ages ; and more time, finally, to read the 
American Constitution and the American newspaper, and make up your 
mind how to vote your own vote, than it does to be put into a ' block 
of five.' But what is twie for ? " 



Normal Schools xxix 

IV. The Sources in Normal Schools 

By professor EMMA M. RIDLEY 

IOWA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 

PERHAPS no subject has undergone a greater transformation in the 
last few years than history. This is without doubt due to an appre- 
ciation of the personal element in history, — to a realization of the fact 
that the makers of past history were human beings, men and women like 
ourselves, with the same mixture of good and bad impulses and motives, 
the same hopes and fears, the same ambitions and desires. We at last 
can say with Emerson : " We sympathize in the great movements of 
history, in the great discoveries, the great resistances, the great prosperi- 
ties of men, because their law was enacted, the sea was searched, the 
land was found, or the blow was struck for us, as we ourselves in that 
place would have done or applauded." 

In the study of history, as in other subjects, two things are to be 
considered, — a mastery of the subject-matter and the development of 
the pupil's mind. The bare facts and dates may perhaps be obtained 
and even the memory developed under the old text-book system, but it 
is impossible to get into the spirit of the period studied, or to develop 
the reason, judgment, imagination, by any such process. Some more 
stimulating influence is needed. 

Until very recently the stimulus of first-hand acquaintance with even 
a few sources was not possible for schools, even for Normal Schools, 
because it was a long and costly task to get together a sufficient library 
of sources to be really representative. Such books as this solve the 
problem : for they put into the hand of the individual pupil a body of 
material brief enough to be used in the time usually allotted, and yet 
full enough to preserve the continuity of American history from its 
beginning to the present time. 

The reader of the Source Book will at once be struck by the live- 
liness of American history. The accounts of the discoverers and 
explorers are not less exciting than the tales of the Arabian Nights. 
The effects of lives of struggle and adventure are seen in the reckless, 



XXX Introductions 

adventurous class of immigrants who came to Virginia. The principle 
of state sovereignty becomes more intelligible to the pupil who traces 
it from the beginning in the foundation and rivalries of the separate 
colonies. How the practical side of Puritan character comes out in the 
plaint of Colonel Byrd : " tho' with Respect to Rum, the Saints of New 
England I fear will find out some trick to evade your Act of Parliament." 
Slavery becomes a vital thing when the Virginia Assembly legislates on 
it, a governor of South Carolina defends it, William Lloyd Garrison is 
mobbed for it. Charity Bowery gives her experience of it, and John 
Brown goes to the scaffold defying it. And the real causes of the Civil 
War are shadowed forth in the speeches of Abraham Lincoln and 
Alexander H. Stephens. 

Another advantage of the source method is the widening of one's 
circle of friends. The pupil finds his heroes and heroines whose good 
points he henceforth consciously or unconsciously imitates and into 
whose place as makers of history he tries to put himself. 

Let no one suppose, however, that the method for which this book is 
planned is automatic. Good tools alone cannot insure a perfect piece 
of workmanship : the teacher must be a zealous and hard-working general 
manager, and the pupils must be earnest and faithful workmen. First 
the teacher must see that the extracts are in the hands of each pupil, 
with the understanding that they are to be studied, not merely read. 
Text-books or good secondary histories, up-to-date narratives, should 
always be used in connection with the Source Book ; for each supple- 
ments the other. 

To insure a thorough study of the extract the teacher should suggest 
some questions or ask for the development of some line of thought as 
the lesson is assigned. For example, if the study is Columbus (pp. 1-3), 
the pupil may be asked to form his opinion of the motives and character 
of Columbus from his own letter ; his notions of the Indians, and his 
treatment of them; let him discover whether the descriptions are true to 
facts, later established ; and determine in his own mind how far Colum- 
bus deserves praise or censure from our modern standards. Broad gen- 
eralization cannot be expected from brief extracts ; what is to be sought 
is that the pupil may think about what he reads. 



Normal Schools xxxi 

The lessons should be short at first and very specific, because the 
method is new and the old English and spelling are hard to understand. 
The method must vary with the age and previous preparation of the 
pupil. Each extract should be regarded as a problem to be solved by 
honest study and thought on the part of the pupil. The result will be 
his opinion of the causes and results of the circumstances under consid- 
eration. The opinion must always be proved from the extract. 

This method takes more time for both pupil and teacher, but the gain 
in interest, in mental discipline, in citizenship, in manhood and woman- 
hood is correspondingly great. The pupil may not know as many facts 
at the close of a term's study, but he will have gained such an insight 
into human nature, such an appreciation of the relation of results to 
causes that life and his relations to it will have a better and deeper 
meaning to him. History will then do its proper work of raising the 
standard of patriotism and civic virtue. 

This book will be especially appreciated by Normal Schools, for 
to them the source method appeals, not only because of the advantage 
to the student himself, but also because the Normal trained teacher 
should go out into the field well equipped with the newest and best 
methods. Notwithstanding the fact that it is the province of the 
Normal School to devote much of its time to the so-called common 
branches, there is always a tendency among the students to feel that 
since they have had these subjects in the grades, it is a waste of time 
" to take them again " ; and hence they apply for test examinations. 
That this is often the case in United States history, cannot be wondered 
at, since these students usually feel that all of American history is com- 
prised within the covers of a brief and inaccurate text-book. 

Normal teachers will find that source study will greatly alleviate this 
difficulty, for source material never gets old and worn out. The teacher 
who has used this method learns that history does not consist in com- 
mitting to memory statements found in some narrative text, but that it 
means mental development through contact with realities, and power 
to reach conclusions for oneself. Once accustomed to the method, 
one need not stop studying American history because a few facts have 
been acquired, any more than one drops mathematics when he has 



xxxii Introductions 

learned the multiplication table. Other Normals will find, as the Iowa 
State Normal has found, that under this method requests for anticipatory 
tests will decrease at least three fourths, because students become con- 
vinced that history by this method is not merely a review, but a serious 
subject demanding serious study ; that it will develop all his mental 
powers and enable him to see American history in a new hght. 

It must not be forgotten that the Normal students are to be teachers. 
Can any one be too well equipped, too well balanced for such work? 
The great need to-day is for men and women who can think ; for 
citizens capable of forming sound judgments in social and governmental 
matters. The opportunity for meeting this demand rests very largely 
with those teachers who have power in themselves to develop thought 
and call out originality in the pupils. The Normal trained teacher, who 
has himself had the advantage of the source method in history as well as 
the source or laboratory method in physics, chemistry, or botany will 
most nearly meet the requirements. This volume, placed in the hands 
of a Normal student and studied as it should be, will not only put him 
more in sympathy with his own country than ever before, will not only 
develop his own reason and judgment, but will enable him to make 
history a power in the schoolroom. 

The effect of the use of such a book as this in the future teacher's own 
grasp of the subject must not be forgotten : the careful reading of 
selected sources fills the mind with illustrations, and adds the lively 
details which make recitations interesting to the pupils and easy for the 
teacher. Of course for preparation for classroom work the teacher will 
go farther into source material, through such collections as are de- 
scribed in Introduction IV, below, and in the side-notes throughout this 
book ; and he will find useful the helps for teachers which appear in 
these introductions. 

The teacher who introduces the source method into a Normal School 
will constantly have the pleasure of hearing students testify that for the first 
time history has been interesting and profitable to them, because it has 
made them thoughtful, critical, inquiring, and even original. History 
can do nothing for us, be nothing to us, unless it be vitalized. This 
book rightly used cannot fail to accomplish this, its purpose. 



Subjects for Topics xxxiii 

V. Subjects for Topical Study from Sources 

THIS book is too brief to furnish much material for topical study, 
and hence references are made throughout to other collections. 
The advantages of written work are well known, in giving point and 
definiteness to the pupil's knowledge, and in affording training in the use 
of books, in the analysis of material, and in stating things to other 
people ; and discussions of various kinds of written work will be found 
in the various treatises on the teachings of history. One of the principal 
difficulties in such work is to find topics which are simple and definite 
enough for young pupils, upon which information may readily be ob- 
tained, and which are not complicated by contested questions. In many 
of the recent text-books lists of such subjects will be found, as well as in 
Channing and Hart's Guide (through the topical heads in Parts 11, III). 
There are also several outlines and outline histories of the United States 
which are made up almost wholly of topics ; a list of such will be found 
in the Guide, § i6 b. In the editor's Revised Suggestions in United States 
History and Government (Cambridge, 1895) are about two thousand 
subjects of a more advanced character, intended primarily for college 
students. 

The following list is intended to include only subjects upon which 
interesting material can be found in comparatively small Ubraries of 
sources. A very large list might also be made of more special and minute 
questions, and of historical incidents. It is impossible to make them all 
equally difficult or equally interesting, but the asterisks mark especially 
likely topics ; each of the subheads under the numbered headings is 
supposed to be a sufficient subject for a piece of written work, so that 
about a thousand topics are here suggested. 

I. Discoveries 

1. Physical conditions of America at the time of discovery: *wild 
animals; * forests ; trees ; birds; * tobacco; fruits; * Indian corn ; fish ; 
Indian sugar ; metals. 

2, Indians : houses ; clothing ; faraihes ; chiefs ; * councils ; weapons ; 
journeys ; worship ; friendship for whites ; *war-path. 



xxxiv Introductions 

3. What did one of the following Spanish discoverers find that was 
not known to Europeans? Columbus, first voyage ; second voyage ; third 
voyage ; *fourth voyage ; *Balboa ; Pineda ; Vespucci ; *Ponce de Leon ; 
De Ayllon ; Cabeza de Vaca ; *Coronado. 

4. What did each of the following French explorers discover? *Ver- 
razano; *Cartier, first and second voyages; Cartier, third voyage; 
* Father Jogues ; *Champlain ; Nicolet ; * Marquette ; Hennepin; *La 
Salle ; Bienville ; *Iberville. 

5. What was actually discovered by the following EngUsh explorers? 
John Cabot ; Sebastian Cabot ; *Sir Francis Drake ; *Sir Walter Raleigh , 
John Rut ; Sir Humphrey Gilbert ; *Amadas and Barlow ; Gosnold , 
Bring; Weymouth; *Captain John Smith. 

6. What was discovered by one of the following Dutch explorers? 
*Henry Hudson; De Vries. 

II. Conditions of Settlement 

7. Previous life in England of some early settlers : Bradford ; *Win- 
throp ; Vane ; John Smith ; Say and Sele. 

8. Settlers : public buildings ; *houses ; block-houses ; *inland jour- 
neys ; canoe voyages ; *trading with Indians ; weapons ; food ; crops ; 
cattle. 

III. First Era of Colonization 

9. The great companies: *Plymouth Company; London Company; 
Grand Council for New England ; *Massachusetts Bay Company. 

10. Virginia: *boundaries; *town of Jamestown ; town of WilUams- 
burg ; John Smith as governor ; Edward Wingfield as governor ; Dale as 
governor; *first Assembly; Sir William Berkeley; *incidents of Bacon's 
Rebellion ; *first slaves. 

11. Maryland: *boundaries ; territorial map ; first settlement ; quar- 
rels with Pennsylvania ; troubles with Clayborne ; a Catholic family in 
Maryland ; a Puritan family in Maryland ; *tobacco culture. 

12. The Carolinas : *boundaries ; territorial maps; Puritans; a re- 
bellion; boundary quarrels with Virginia; Indians. 



Subjects for Topics xxxv 

13. Plymouth : biography of some worthy, as *Bradford, Carver, 
Winslovv, *Brewster, Robinson, Standish ; life of a Pilgrim in Holland ; 
*account of an escape from England ; *Hampton Court Conference ; 
*Archbishop Laud's opinion of Puritans ; James Ps opinion of 
Puritans; *vvhat do we know about the "Mayflower" voyage? Plymouth 
fish trade ; dealings with Indians ; *early town-meetings ; Plymouth 
patent; union with Massachusetts. 

14. Massachusetts : *Merry Mount ; *why did Boston become the 
chief town ? relations with Indians ; biography of some worthy, as *Win- 
throp, Endicott, Saltonstall, *Higginson, *Vane, Coddington, *Dudley ; 
opinions expressed by Charles II ; investigation by commissioners ; 
*Governor Andros ; *revolution of 1689. 

15. Rhode Island : *what did Anne Hutchinson teach? *Roger Wil- 
liams ; first settlement at Providence ; Gorton ; first settlement at 
Newport ; charter obtained ; religious liberty. 

16. Connecticut: *boundaries ; Dutch on the Connecticut; *emigra- 
tion from Cambridge ; relations with Indians ; Pequod War ; founding 
of New Haven; annexation of New Haven; "Fundamental Orders"; 
Governor Andros ; *Charter Oak. 

1 7. New Hampshire and Maine : boundaries ; Mason claim ; 
*Gorges claim ; first settlements ; city of Agamenticus ; fishermen. 

18. New England Confederation : *vvhy formed? *account of a meet- 
ing ; quarrels with Massachusetts ; quarrels with the Dutch ; charitable 
work ; *why did it break up ? 

IV. Second Era of Colonization 

19. Dutch settlements : boundaries on the Delaware ; *New Amster- 
dam ; Fort Orange; Governor Stuyvesant; *Governor Kieft; relations 
with Indians ; account of a patroonate ; Five Nations. 

20. New York: why did the English wish New Amsterdam? *why 
could not the Dutch defend New Amsterdam? *" Duke's Laws"; 
*Jacob Leisler ; prosecution of Zenger ; Governor Andros. 

21. New Jersey : *boundaries ; foundation of East Jersey; founda- 
tion of West Jersey ; New Englanders ; Quakers ; union of the Jerseys. 



xxxvi Introductions 

22. Pennsylvania : boundaries ; early Swedish settlements ; how did 
Penn get his charter? *Penn's first coming; early Philadelphia; 
*Germans ; Finns ; Moravians ; *Penn's constitution ; relations with 
Indians. 

23. Georgia: boundaries; *Oglethorpe in Georgia; Germans; 
Jews ; *why were slaves allowed ? *quarrels with the Spaniards ; *ques- 
tion of rum. 

V. Seventeenth Century Life 

(Very often it will be found quite sufficient to work up one of the 
following topics on some single colony, using all available journals, 
diaries, travels, and descriptions, as well as wills, statutes, etc.) 

24. Social life : *houses ; furniture ; *clothing ; *amusements ; food ; 
*beverages ; table ware. 

25. Travel: on horseback; by sea; dangers of the roads; ferries; 
inns. 

26. Employments: *ship-building ; *iron-making ; fishing; foreign 
trade; *furs; mining; *timber. 

27. Religion: church buildings; *account of Sunday; sermons; 
baptism ; " Half-way Covenant " ; Thursday lectures ; might a man 
worship God according to his own conscience? *ministers ; *church 
music ; fast days ; thanksgivings. 

28. Education : schools ; *foundation of Harvard ; *foundation of 
Yale ; *foundation of William and Mary ; *learned women. 

29. Literature : *poetry ; humorous works ; *histories. 

30. Quakers : what did they believe ? were they dangerous to the 
colonies ? defence of themselves ; *a trial. 

31. Witchcraft: *" spectral evidence"; a trial; punishment of 
witches ; *courts in Massachusetts ; witches in other colonies ; *Increase 
Mather on witches ; Calef on witches. 

32. Town life: *Boston ; *New Haven; *New Amsterdam; *New 
York ; *Philadelphia ; *Charleston ; Savannah. 

^2,. Slavery: *might slaves be baptized? Indian slaves; plantations; 
house servants ; *early anti-slavery ; insurrections ; fugitives. 



Subjects for Topics xxxvii 



VI. France and England 

34. Canada: how governed; "coureurs de bois"; fur-trading; a 
French attack on the EngUsh frontier ; a Canadian town. 

35. Louisiana: La Salle's colony; *Bienville's colony; *'' Missis- 
sippi bubble" ; foundation of New Orleans ; slaves ; *Crozat's grant. 

36. Six Nations : relations with French ; relations with English ; 
methods of fighting ; *Long House ; *an attack on the frontier. 

37. Wars with France : *capture of Deerfield ; capture of Andover; 
*capture of Schenectady ; *colonial privateering ; *first capture of 
Louisburg ; *removal of the Acadians. 

38. French and Indian War : French in Ohio ; *the Half- King ; 
*Colonel Washington at Fort Necessity ; *Braddock's defeat ; Aber- 
crombie's defeat ; second capture of Louisburg ; *capture of Quebec ; 
capture of Montreal. 

VII. Eighteenth Century Life 

(Most of the subjects in section V above are also applicable to 
the eighteenth century, and the following additional topics may be 
suggested.) 

39. Social life : early theatres ; horse races ; military uniforms ; 
*family Hfe ; conflagrations ; country seats ; *purchases from England ; 
*use of tea ; use of chocolate ; entertainment of guests ; inoculation ; 
the ague ; *lotteries ; *weddings ; tipphng ; instances of large families. 

40. Servitude : *indentured servants ; sales of slaves ; *advertisements 
of runaways ; slave galleries in church ; *African slave-trade. 

41. Anti-slavery: *Quaker abolitionists; restrictions on slave-trade; 
setting slaves free; *Somerset decision; anti-slavery Puritans ; Samuel 
Sewall ; Samuel Hopkins ; Anthony Benezet ; John Woolman ; earli- 
est abolition societies. 

42. Religion: *clergy in the Southern colonies; Dutch ministers; 
*Puritan ministers; Episcopalian churches; Baptists: *Methodists; 
Presbyterians ; Bunkers ; Shakers ; United Brethren ; *Whitefield ; 
**! Great Awakening " ; *John Wesley. 



xxxviii Introductions 

43. Intellectual life : *earliest newspapers ; *public libraries ; private 
libraries; doctors; lawyers; New England Earthquake; lightning-rods; 
*printers; almanacs; * Poor Richard ; *Phillis Wheatley. 

44. Education : foundation of Dartmouth ; Brown ; King's College 
(Columbia) ; Princeton ; Rutgers ; University of Pennsylvania ; law 
students ; *school-teachers ; examinations ; primary schools ; *good 
letter-writers. 

45 . Histories : Smith's New Jersey ; *Stith's Virginia ; Williams's 
Deerfield ; Vnnce's New England ; *W\i\.chms,ovCs Massachusetts ; Amos 
Adams's Concise View; *Proud's Fetinsylvatiia ; Edwards's Baptists; 
Backus's New England. 

46. Industries : beaver pelts ; raising fruit ; hat-making ; *iron- 
making ; potash ; rice ; sugar ; wine ; *indigo ; exports of grain ; min- 
ing ; tobacco ; home spinning ; home weaving ; cheese. 

47. Trade : with the West Indies ; with the enemy ; *English pirates ; 
Spanish pirates; masts; timber; *Captain Kidd ; *Black Beard; 
*smuggling ; rum. 

48. Travel : carriages ; boats ; sailing crafts ; roads ; canoes ; *Niagara 
Falls. 

49. Paper money: issues; *arguments for; *objections; British 
prohibition ; local coinage. 

VIII. Colonial Government 

(This is one of the most difficult subjects in colonial history ; hence 
topics are not recommended which require the use of a large body of 
material and elaborate generalization, but rather such as involve the 
study of narratives, especially the records of colonies and municipali- 
ties. Detailed subjects might be suggested by going carefully over 
Contemporaries, II, Part iii.) 

50. Activity : *lords of trade ; restriction of the suffrage ; *disorderly 
elections ; *a day in an assembly ; *a day in town-meeting ; a day in a 
colonial council ; city councils ; a vestry-meeting ; *imprisonment for 
debt ; the pillory ; branding ; *a veto ; a governor's salary ; a governor's 
ball ; " mandamus councillors." 



Subjects for Topics xxxix 

IX. The Revolution 

(On the history of the Revolution, the extracts in this volume look 
rather to its causes and to the spirit of the people than to the actual 
military operations ; and the material is so abundant that stimulating 
topics may be found which do not deal with military movements or 
details. A very few out of a possible multitude are here stated.) 

51. The Stamp Act controversy: protests; *a mob; *Franklin's 
opinions ; *why was the Stamp Act repealed ? colonial loyalty to 
King George ; what became of the stamps? 

52. Spirit of the people: *revolutionary town-meetings; *Sons of 
Liberty ; *Committees of Correspondence ; *a revolutionary conven- 
tion ; *the flight of a governor ; destruction of the " Gaspee " ; *a 
revolutionary mob ; British soldiers in garrison ; North Carolina Regu- 
lators ; *a Tory's defence; imprisonment of Tories; *exile of Tories; 
Tory ministers of the gospel ; patriot ministers ; Tory songs ; patriot 
songs ; *life of a refugee. 

53. The Western country : *an emigrant journey ; *a settler's home ; 
*a brush with the Indians; frontier churches ; a log house; floating 
down the Ohio ; a powwow with the Indians ; clearing land. 

54. Soldiers : *recruiting ; pay ; uniforms; *camp life ; on the march ; 
in battle; *negro troops ; ^French officers ; * Hessian officers ; Hessian 
soldiers; naval officers; *hfe of a privateer; loyalist troops; spies; 
hospitals ; *work of women ; Indian allies. 

55. Experiences of individuals: * Washington ; Gates; Greene; 
Putnam ; *Riedesel ; *Burgoyne ; Chnton ; *Charles Lee ; Lincoln ; 
" Whitehorse Harry Lee " ; Knox ; Ward ; Hamilton ; *Cornwanis ; 
Tarleton; * Lafayette ; Steuben; Conway; Andr^ ; *Arnold; *Nathan 
Hale ; Burnaby ; Tilghman ; Thacher. 

56. Revolutionary government : *a day in the first Continental Con- 
gress ; *a day in the second Continental Congress ; *a day in a State 
convention ; debate on the Declaration of Independence ; ^arguments 
for confederation ; debate on the French treaty. 

5 7. Battles : *Lexington and Concord ; *Bunker Hill ; siege of Boston ; 
Long Island ; New York ; Trenton ; *Princeton ; Bennington ; Brandy- 



xl Introductions 

wine; * Saratoga ; Valley Forge; Newport; Charleston; Camden; Cow- 
pens ; siege of Yorktown ; *surrender at Yorktown. 

58. Finances : *Continental paper money ; paper money of some 
State ; Bank of North America ; *maximum prices ; war taxes. 

59. Peace : Deane in France ; *Franklin in France ; treaty of 1778 ; 
French loans ; John Adams in Paris ; *John Jay in Paris ; *breaking 
instructions ; *George III yields ; independence acknowledged ; boun- 
daries ; fisheries ; British debts ; loyalists. 



X. Confederation and Constitution 

60. Articles of Confederation : * Franklin's draft ; *Dickinson's draft ; 
draft of Congress; New Jersey's opposition; *Maryland's opposition; 
slavery question ; *defects ; criticisms by Pelatiah Webster, Noah Web- 
ster, Hamilton, Washington. 

6i. Land claims and cessions: ^Connecticut ; Massachusetts; New 
York ; Pennsylvania ; *Virginia ; South Carolina ; North CaroHna ; 
*Georgia ; Grayson's ordinance ; Western Reserve ; Fire Lands ; 
Symmes purchase ; Wyoming controversy. 

62. New State constitutions: any one of the thirteen States; suf- 
frage ; single house legislatures ; councils as chief executive ; *John 
Adams's opinions. 

63. Slavery : the Association ; *Jefferson's ordinance ; *Northwest 
Ordinance ; emancipation by *Vermont, *Massachusetts, *Pennsylvania, 
New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey. 

64. Federal Convention : *describe the attitude of some member of 
the convention by following out his motions and arguments through the 
debates ; follow through its various stages the question of Senate, 
Supreme Court, election of President, Vice-President, taxing power, 
commerce power. 

65. Compromises of the Constitution: *t\vo houses; *federal ratio; 
*slave-trade. 

66. Ratification : follow out some one line of argument for or against 
the Constitution through all the conventions ; *find out what were the rea- 



Subjects for Topics xli 

sons which determined some one of the State conventions for or against 
ratification ; how many amendments were suggested by conventions ? 



XI. Making the Government 

67. PubUc services of Hamilton, *Jefferson, Madison, *Maclay, Bou- 
dinot, Robert Morris, Gallatin, Gouverneur Morris, John Jay, Edmund 
Randolph, Harper, Henry Knox, Arthur St. Clair. 

68. Debates, 1789-93 : on instructions ; *State department ; Treasury 
department; President's title ; *first tariff ; excise; judiciary; *submit- 
ting papers (1796) ; *removal of officers; *national capital; funding 
the debt ; assumption ; *United States Bank ; slavery petitions. 

69. Admission of new States : Vermont ; Kentucky ; Tennessee ; 
*Ohio. 

70. Foreign relations : *Genet's mission ; neutrality proclamation ; 
*Jay treaty; Spanish treaty ; "Despatch No. 10"; *"X. Y. Z."; French 
treaty of 1800 ; *" Addresses " to Adams. 

71. Internal dissensions: *Whiskey Rebellion; election of Adams ; 
*debates on Alien Act *or Sedition Act ; *first Kentucky Resolutions ; 
Virginia Resolutions ; *second Kentucky Resolution ; Madison's Re- 
port; Fries insurrection ; election of 1800. 

XII. Jefferson's Policy 

72. PoHtical : election of 180 1 ; " midnight appointments" ; removal 
of Bishop ; *Jefferson's simplicity ; his opinions on Marbury vs. Madi- 
son ; on Chase impeachment ; *on Burr trial ; on the army ; *some 
incident in the Barbary wars ; Quid party. 

73. Annexations : Treaty of St. Ildefonso ; withdrawal of right of 
deposit; *why did Napoleon cede Louisiana? *constitutional objec- 
tions to the annexation; *political objections; West Florida question; 
Texas boundary ; Lewis and Clark's expedition ; account of Astoria ; 
complaints of Louisiana territorial government. 

74. Neutral trade : *instances of capture of American merchantmen ; 
number of captures ; *instances' of impressment ; Berlin Decree ; Milan 



xlii Introductions 

Decree ; Bayonne Decree ; Decree of the Trianon ; British Orders 
in Council; *" Leopard-Chesapeake " affair; *debate on embargo; on 
enforcement; on repeal ; Erskine's mission ; *Jackson's mission; Rose's 
mission ; Foster's mission ; Pinckney's mission. 

XIII. War of i8i2 

75. Opinions of statesmen on the war : Madison; Monroe; *Clay ; 
*Calhoun ; *Webster ; Jackson ; Lowndes ; Cheves ; J. Q. Adams. 

76. Military operations : Detroit ; Niagara ; *battle of Lake Erie ; 
*Plattsburg ; *Lundy's Lane; capture of Washington; *New Orleans. 

77. Naval operations : capture of *" Guerriere " ; *" Macedonian " ; 
"Java" ; " Peacock " ; "Argus" ; *" Boxer" ; "Chesapeake" ; *" Essex." 

78. Opposition : feeling in *Massachusetts ; in Connecticut ; in 
Rhode Island; in Vermont; *Hartford Convention. 

79. Peace : services of Gallatin, Clay, Bayard, *John Quincy Adams ; 
Mississippi question ; slaves; impressment; *fisheries; boundaries. 

XIV. Reorganization 

80. *Cities and towns in 1820: Boston; Salem; Providence; Hart- 
ford ; New Haven ; New York ; Albany ; Newark ; Philadelphia ; Bal- 
timore ; Richmond ; Charleston ; New Orleans ; Pittsburg ; Cincinnati ; 
Detroit. 

81. Western life: *clearing land ; *schools ; churches; camp-meet- 
ings; lawyers; land buyers; *Abraham Lincoln's family; flat-boats; 
*steamboats. 

82. Commercial : *debate on United States Bank ; on Bonus Bill ; 
*on tariff of 181 6 ; *a trip over the Cumberland Road ; Erie Canal. 

83. Missouri Compromise : Arkansas Debate ; first Missouri Debate ; 
*Northern opposition ; *Southern advocacy ; attitude on compromise of 
Clay, Calhoun, *J. Q. Adams, Thomas, Taylor, Monroe, Webster, Benton. 

84. Monroe Doctrine : *Holy Alliance ; description of a Latin-Amer- 
ican republic ; Bolivar ; Russia on the northwest coast ; Congress of 
Verona ; attitude of Jefferson, Madison, *J. Q. Adams, *Calhoun, Rush, 



Subjects for Topics xliii 

Canning ; discussion in the cabinet ; arguments for the Panama Con- 
gress ; *arguments against it. 



XV. Abolitionists 

85. *Slave life : names; dress; quarters; field work; house service ; 
jollifications; funerals; overseers; kind treatment; cruel treatment ; 
instances of insurrection ; runaways ; auction sales ; setting free ; 
marriages. 

86. Defence of slavery : *scriptural; good of negro; good of whites ; 
*Christianizing ; "positive good." 

87. Arguments against slavery : bad eff'ect on whites ; ignorance ; 
wastefulness ; cruelty ; *prosecutions for teaching slaves to read. 

88. .Interstate slavery: free negroes in the North; free negroes in 
the South ; transit ; *runaways ; extradition of slave-traders ; *" Under- 
ground Railroad." 

89. International slavery : cases of " Comet," " Enterprise," 
*" Creole," " L'Amistad " ; quintuple treaty. 

90. Abolitionists : *Benjamin Lundy ; *William Lloyd Garrison ; 
John Rankin ; *Salmon P. Chase ; *VVendell PhilHps ; *Charles Sum- 
ner ; William EUery Channing ; Gerrit Smith ; Arthur Tappan ; Levi 
Coffin ; Theodore Parker ; Samuel J. May ; *Whittier ; Lowell ; Abby 
Kelly. 

91. Slave episodes : an account of any one of the famous escapes or 
fugitive- slave trials before 1850, especially those of *Crafts, Box-Brown, 
Douglas, *Van Zandt, Kennedy, Latimer, Prigg, Ottoman. 

XVI. Territorial Development 

92. Jackson: military experience; previous political experience; 
*opinions on the bank; on the tariff; on internal improvements; *on 
deposits ; on Van Buren ; on slavery ; on Calhoun ; on Clay ; " Kitchen 
Cabinet " ; specie circular. 

93. Oregon : overland journeys ; early settlers ; *Marcus Whitman ; 
*" fifty-four forty or fight " ; fur-traders ; treaty of 1846. 



xliv Introductions 

94. Texas : Lone Star government ; red-back notes ; Clay's letters ; 
annexation treaty ; *debate on joint resolution ; Sam Houston ; Moses 
Austin. 

95. Mexican War: claims against Mexico; capture of Santa F6 ; 
*war in California ; Lieutenant U. S. Grant ; *General Taylor in Mex- 
ico ; *General Scott in Mexico. 

96. California : Fremont's expedition ; accounts before 1846 ; ac- 
counts by Forty-niners ; across the plains ; around the Horn ; across 
the Isthmus ; *gold fields ; miners' government ; vigilance committees ; 
constitutional convention of 1849 ; slaves. 

97. Territorial crisis: *Wilmot proviso; *Lincoln in Congress; 
*Barn-burners ; Buffalo Convention. 

98. Compromise of 1850: Oregon Act; Walker amendment; Cal- 
houn's resolutions ; attitude of *Clay ; * Webster ; Seward ; *Chase ; 
Calhoun ; *Jefferson Davis ; Douglas. 

XVII. Slavery Contest 

99. Fugitive-slave cases : Hamlet ; *Shadrach ; Sims ; *Christiana ; 
Burns ; Passmore-WilUamson ; Garner ; *Oberlin-WeUington ; Booth. 

100. Cuba: Lopez expedition ; Tripartite guaranty ; Black Warrior ; 
*Ostend Manifesto ; Pierre Soul6. 

loi. Kansas- Nebraska Act : * Douglas's defence ; *" Appeal of Inde- 
pendent Democrats " ; attitude of Douglas, *Chase, Seward, Dixon, 
Toombs, *Pierce, Jefferson Davis. 

102. Kansas: "border ruffians"; aid societies; a settler's expe- 
riences ; *elections ; . first legislature ; Topeka government ; *John 
Brown; *Lecompton Convention ; " English Bill." 

103. John Brown: in Hudson; in Springfield; at North Elba; 
*plans for Harper's Ferry ; *Harper's Ferry raid ; *trial ; *was he a 
murderer? 

104. Election of i860: * Lincoln- Douglas debate; " Freeport doc- 
trine " ; Charleston Convention ; Chicago Convention ; Baltimore Con- 
vention ; campaign ; threats of secession ; Lincoln's part. 

105. *Secession : of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, 



Subjects for Topics xlv 

Florida, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana ; saving of Maryland, West Virginia, 
Kentucky, Missouri. 

io6. Southern Confederacy : Congress at Montgomery ; new Consti- 
tution ; President Davis ; *Vice-President Stephens ; paper money ; 
seizure of forts ; *Fort Pickens ; Fort Sumter. 



XVIII. Civil War 

107. *Abraham Lincoln: early life; education; feeling toward sla- 
very; cabinet-making; attitude on compromise ; story-telling, 

108. Advisers : *Seward ; *Chase ; Cameron ; *Stanton ; Bates ; Blair ; 
Smith ; Welles. 

109. *Soldiers : first regiments to appear; recruiting; camp life; 
hospitals ; drill ; on the march ; at the front ; deserters ; bounty- 
jumpers ; spies ; acts of heroism. 

no. Battles: *Bull Run; Fair Oaks; Malvern Hill; second Bull 
Run ; *Antietam ; Fredericksburg ; *Chancellorsville ; *Gettysburg ; 
*Pittsburg Landing ; Stone River ; *Chickamauga ; Chattanooga ; 
*Appomattox ; sieges of Atlanta, Vicksburg, Charleston, Petersburg. 

111. Navy: blockaders; *the "Alabama" ; *New Orleans ; Mobile; 
*" Monitor " and " Merrimac." 

112. Slavery : *" contrabands " ; Hilton Head ; *first proclamation ; 
final proclamation ; negro troops ; emancipation in Maryland, West 
Virginia, Missouri ; Thirteenth Amendment. 



XIX. Reconstruction 

113. Southern whites : *a ruined plantation ; a town; New Orleans ; 
Charleston ; Richmond ; a " carpet-bagger." 

114. Negroes: land-buyers; schools; churches; in Congress. 

115. System of reconstruction : Lincoln's amnesty; Johnson's am- 
nesty; Johnson's speeches, 1865-66; *attitude of Stevens, *Sumner, 
Wade, Chase, Butler; *impeachment ; report of a military governor; a 
constitutional convention ; a carpet-bag government ; the Ku Klux. 



xlvi Introductions 



XX. Union Restored 

ii6. Bad government : a Tweed contract ; a Tweed judge; S. J. Til- 
den's reforms ; Boss Shepherd in Washington ; Belknap impeachment ; 
*George William Curtis on reform. 

117. Foreign relations: *Seward on the French in Mexico; Treaty 
of Washington ; Geneva arbitration ; northeastern fisheries. 

118. Finances: debates on greenbacks, resumption, tariff, *demone- 
tization of silver, 1873 ; *coinage act of 1878 ; the Greenback party. 

119. Civil Service Reform : instances of removal ; instances of doubt- 
ful appointments ; *President Grant's attitude ; the first commission ; 
President Hayes; President Arthur; the Pendleton Act; *second com- 
mission. 

120. Indians: account of a campaign; account of a reservation; an 
Indian speech ; civilized Indians. 

XXI. The Spanish War 

121. Cuba before 1895 : *a visit to Cuba; instances of Spanish mis- 
government ; instances of seizure of property ; *the " Virginius" ; 
filibustering expeditions. 

122. Second Cuban War: *reconcentrados ; Americans in prison; 
the " Maine " ; *debate on intervention ; debate on declaring war. 

123. Battles: *Manila ; Guasimas; San Juan; *Santiago. 

124. Peace: reports on the Philippines ; debates on appropriation. 

125. Administration: of Cuba; of Porto Rico; sanitary; police; 
schools ; justice. 

126. The Philippines : Dewey's government ; Aguinaldo ; the war. 



CHAPTER I — DISCOVERIES 



I. Discovery of the New World (1492) 

yt LETTER addressed to the noble Lord Raphael 
y^y Sanchez, Treasurer to their most invincible Majes- 
ties, Eerdijia?td and Lsabella, King and Queen of 
Spaiti, by Christopher Columbtcs, to whom our age is greatly 
indebted, treatifig of the islands of India recefitly discovered 
beyond the Ganges, to explore which he had been sent eight 
?nonths befo7-e under the auspices a?id at the expense of their 
said Majesties. 

Knowing that it will afford you pleasure to learn that I 
have brought my undertaking to a successful termination, 
I have decided upon writing you this letter to acquaint you 
with all the events which have occurred in my voyage, and 
the discoveries which have resulted from it. Thirty-three 
days after my departure from Cadiz I reached the Indian 
sea, where I discovered many islands, thickly peopled, of 
which I took possession without resistance in the name of 
our most illustrious Monarch, by public proclamation and 
with unfurled banners. To the first of these islands, which 
is called by the Indians Guanahani, I gave the name of the 
blessed Saviour (San Salvador), relying upon whose protec- 
tion I had reached this as well as the other islands ... As 
soon as we arrived at that, which as I have said was named 
Juana, I proceeded along its coast a short distance westward, 
and found it to be so large and apparently without termina- 
tion, that I could not suppose it to be an island, but the 
continental province of Cathay. ... In the mean time I 
had learned from some Indians whom I had seized, that 
that country was certainly an island : and therefore I sailed 



Written in 
1493 by 
Christo- 
pher Co- 
lumbus 
(about 
1440-1506) , a 
Genoese in 
the service oi 
Spain. — For 
other letters 
by Colum- 
bus, see Old 
South Leaf- 
lets, No. 71; 
American 
History Leaf- 
lets, No. I ;' 
Contempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
17, 19. — For 
an account, 
by his son, of 
the discovery 
of America, 
see Old South 
Leaflets, No. 
29. 

Columbus 
supposed 
he had 
neared Asia. 

Guanahani= 
probably 
Watkins 
Island. 



Juana, now 
Cuba. 



2 Discoveries [1492 

towards the east, coasting to the distance of three hundred 
and twenty-two miles, which brought us to the extremity of 
it ; from this point I saw lying eastwards another island, 
fifty-four miles distant from Juana, to which I gave the 
Now San name of Espanola ... All these islands are very beauti- 
omingo. ^i^jI^ ^^^ distinguished by a diversity of scenery ; they are 
filled with a great variety of trees of immense height, and 
which I believe to retain their foliage in all seasons ; for 
when I saw them they were as verdant and luxuriant as 
they usually are in Spain in the month of May, — some of 
them were blossoming, some bearing fruit, and all flourish- 
ing in the greatest perfection, according to their respective 
stages of growth, and the nature and quality of each : yet 
the islands are not so thickly wooded as to be impassable. 
The nightingale and various birds were singing in countless 
numbers, and that in November, the month in which I 
arrived there. . . . The inhabitants . . . are very simple 
and honest, and exceedingly liberal with all they have ; none 
of them refusing any thing he may possess when he is asked 
for it, but on the contrary inviting us to ask them. They 
exhibit great love towards all others in preference to them- 
selves : they also give objects of great value for trifles, and 
content themselves with very little or nothing in return. I 
however forbad that these trifles and articles of no value 
(such as pieces of dishes, plates, and glass, keys, and leather 
straps) should be given to them, although if they could 
obtain them, they imagined themselves to be possessed of 
the most beautiful trinkets in the world. It even happened 
that a sailor received for a leather strap as much gold as 
Noble = was worth three golden nobles, and for things of more tri- 

aboutSi.6s. ^^"§ value offered by our men, especially-newly coined 
Bianca a blancas, or any gold coins, the Indians would give what- 
smaii silver ever the seller required . . . On my arrival ... I had 
in'i- about taken rome Indians by force from the first island that 1 
W giains. came to, in order that they might learn our language . . . 



No. i] 



Columbus 



These men are still travelling with me, and although they 
have been with us now a long time, they continue to enter- 
tain the idea that I have descended from heaven ; and on 
our arrival at any new place they published this, crying out 
immediately with a loud voice to the other Indians, "Come, 
come and look upon beings of a celestial race " : upon which 
both women and men, children and adults, young men and 
old, when they got rid of the fear they at first entertained, 
would come out in throngs, crowding the roads to see us, 
some bringing food, others drink, with astonishing aifection 
and kindness. . . Although all I have related may appear 
to be wonderful and unheard of, yet the results of my voyage 
would have been more astonishing if I had had at my dis- 
posal such ships as I required. But these great and mar- 
vellous results are not to be attributed to any merit of mine, 
but to the holy Christian faith, and to the piety and religion 
of our Sovereigns ; for that which the unaided intellect of 
man could not compass, the spirit of God has granted to 
human exertions, for God is wont to hear the prayers of his 
servants who love his precepts even to the performance of 
apparent impossibilities. Thus it has happened to me in 
the present instance, who have accomplished a task to 
which the powers of mortal men had never hitherto attained ; 
for if there have been those who have anywhere written or 
spoken of these islands, they have done so with doubts and 
conjectures, and no one has ever asserted that he has seen 
them, on which account their writings have been looked 
upon as little else than fables. Therefore let the king and 
queen, our princes and their most happy kingdoms, and all 
the other provinces of Christendom, render thanks to our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who has granted us so great 
a victory and such prosperity. . . . 

Select Letters of ChristopJier Cobimbus (translated by R. H. 
Major, m Hakluyt Society, Works issued, London, 1847), 
I -1 7 passim. 



Ferdinand 
and Isabella. 



For Norse 
discoveries 
of America, 
see Old South 
Leaflets, Nos. 
30, 31 ; Con- 
temporaries, 
I, No. 16; 
other voy- 
ages, Old 
South Leaf- 
lets, Nos. 17, 
34- 



Discoveries 



[M97 



Written in 
1516 by 
Peter 
Martyr 
d'Anghiera 
(1455-1526), 
a Milanese, 
resident at 
the Spanish 
court. The 
account is 
based on 
information 
given him by 
Sebastian 
Cabot, at 
that time a 
pilot in the 
service of 
Spain, and is 
the first com- 
plete narra- 
tive of an 
English voy- 
age which we 
have. — For 
the Cabots, 
see Old South 
Leaflets, No. 
37 ; Ameri- 
can History 
Leaflets, No. 
9 ; Contem- 
poraries, I, 
No. 26. 

36° north 
latitude; 
about the 
latitude of 
Cape Hat- 
teras. 

Fretum Her- 
culeum = 
Straits of 
Gibraltar. 

Baccallaos = 
Newfound- 
land? 



2. An English Voyage to North America 

(1497) 

THESE northe seas haue byn [have been] 
searched by one Sebastian Cabot a Venetian 
borne [born], whom beinge yet but in maner an infante, his 
parentes caryed [carried] with them into Englande hauyng 
[having] occasion to resorte thether [thither] for trade of 
marchandies [merchandise], as is the maner of the Vene- 
tians too leaue [leave] no parte of the worlde vnsearched to 
obteyne [obtain] richesse [riches]. He therfore furnisshed 
two shippes in England at his owne charges : And fyrst [first] 
with three hundreth men, directed his course so farre toward 
the northe pole, that euen [even] in the mooneth [month] 
of Inly he founde monstrous heapes of Ise [ice] swimming 
on the sea, and in maner continuall day lyght. Yet sawe he 
the lande in that tracte, free from Ise, whiche had byn [been] 
molten by heate of the sunne. Thus seyng [seeing] suche 
heapes of Ise before hym he was enforced to tourne [turn] 
his sayles and folowe the weste, so coastynge styll by the 
shore, that he was thereby broughte so farre into the southe 
by reason of the lande bendynge so muche southward that 
it was there almoste equall in latitude with the sea cauled 
[called] Fretum Herculeum, hauynge the north pole eleuate 
in maner in the same degree. He sayled lykewise in this 
tracte so farre towarde the weste, that he had the Ilande 
of Cuba [on] his lefte hande in maner in the same degree 
of langitude. As he traueyled [travelled] by the coastes 
of this greate lande (whiche he named Baccallaos^ he sayth 
that he found the like course of the waters toward the west, 
but the same to runne more softely and gentelly [gently] 
then [than] the swifte waters whiche the Spanyardes found 
in their nauigations southeward. 

Wherefore, it is not onely [only] more lyke to bee 



No. 2] 



Sebastian Cabot 



trewe [true], but ought also of necessitie to bee concluded, 
that betwene both the landes hetherto vnknowen, there 
shulde bee certeyne great open places wherby the waters 
shulde thus continually passe from the East into the weste : 
which waters I suppose to bee dryuen [driven] about the 
globe of the earth by the vncessaunt mouynge [moving] 
and impulsion of the heauens : and not to be swalowed vp 
[up] and cast owt [out] ageyne [again] by the breathynge 
oi Demogorgon as same [some] haue imagined bycause they 
see the seas by increase and decrease, to flowe and reflowe. 
Sebastian Cabot him selfe, named those landes Baccallaos, 
bycause that m the seas therabout he founde so great multi- 
tudes of certeyne [certain] bigge fysshes [fishes] much lyke 
vnto tunies [tunnies] (which th[e]inhabitantes caule [call] 
Baccallaos) that they sumtymes stayed his shippes. He 
founde also the people of those regions couered with beastes 
skynnes : yet not without th[e]use of reason. 

He saythe [saith] also that there is greate plentie of 
beares in those regions, whiche vse to eate fysshe. For 
plungeinge theym selues [themselves] into the water where 
they perceue [perceive] a multitude of these fysshes to lye, 
they fasten theyr [their] clawes in theyr scales, and so drawe 
them to lande and eate them. So that (as he saith) the 
beares beinge thus satisfied with fysshe, are not noysom to 
men. He declareth further, that in many places of these 
regions, he sawe great plentie of laton amonge th[e]inhabi- 
tantes. Cabot is my very frende, whom I vse famylierly, 
and delyte [delight] to haue hym sumtymes keepe mee com- 
pany in myne owne house. For beinge cauled owte [out] 
of England by the commaundement of the catholyke kynge 
of Castile after the deathe of Henry kynge of Englande the 
seuenth of that name, he was made one of owre [our] coun- 
sayle and assystance as touchynge the affayres [affairs] of 
the newe Indies, lookynge dayely for shippes to bee fur- 
nysshed for hym to discouer this hyd secreate of nature. 



As yet no 
notion that 
there was a 
continent 
between 
Europe and 
Asia. 



An infernal 
deity. 



These were 
the cod-fish. 



Copper ore. 



About 1512, 
by Ferdinand 
V of Spain. 



Discoveries 



[154' 



Frustrated by 
the death of 
Ferdinand in 
the preceding 
January. 

For EngHsh 
claims based 
on Cabot's 
discoveries, 
see Contem- 
poraries, I, 
No. 48. 



This vyage is appoynted to bee begunne in March in the 
yeare next folowynge, beinge the yeare of Chryst M.D.XVI. 
What shall succeade, yowre [your] holynes shalbe aduer- 
tised by my letters if god graunte me lyfe [hfe]. Sume of 
the Spanyardes denye that Cabot was the fyrst fynder of the 
lande of Baccallaos : And afifirme that he went not so farre 
westewarde. But it shall suffice to haue sayde thus much of 
the goulfes [gulfs] & strayghtes [straits], and of Cebastian 
Cabot. . . . 

Peter Martyr, T/ie Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India 
(translated by Richard Eden, London, 1555), Decade III, 
Book vi, fol. 118-119. 



By Fran- 
cisco Vas- 
quez coro- 

NADO (15IO- 

1542?), at 
this time 
Spanish gov- 
ernor of New 
GaHcia. In 
his letter to 
the king of 
Spain he tells 
the story of 
the first 
explorations 
into the in- 
terior of what 
is now the 
United 
States. — For 
Coronado, 
see Old South 
Leaflets, No. 
20; American 
Histoiy Leaf- 
lets, No. 13. 
— For other 
Spanish 
explorations, 
see Old South 
Leaflets, Nos. 

35. 36, 39; 
Contempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
17-25- 



3. A Spanish Exploration (1541) 

HOLY Catholic C^sarian Majesty : On April 20 of 
this year [1541] I wrote to Your Majesty from this 
province of Tiguex, in reply to a letter from Your Majesty 
dated in Madrid, June 1 1 a year ago. ... I started from 
this province on the 23d of last April, for the place where 
the Indians wanted to guide me. After nine days' march I 
reached some plains, so vast that I did not find their limit 
anywhere that I went, although I traveled over them for 
more than 300 leagues. And I found such a quantity of 
cows in these [plains] . . . which they have in this country, 
that it is impossible to number them, for while I was journey- 
ing through these plains, until I returned to where I first 
found them, there was not a day that I lost sight of them. 
And after seventeen days' march I came to a settleinent of 
Indians who are called Querechos, who travel around with 
these cows, who do not plant, and wlio eat the raw flesh and 
drink the blood of the cows they kill, and they tan the skins 
of the cows, with which all the people of this country dress 
themselves here. They have little field tents made of the 



No. 3] 



Coronado 



hides of the cows, tanned and greased, very well made, in 
which they live while they travel around near the cows, 
moving with these. They have dogs which they load, which 
carry their tents and poles and belongings. These people 
have the best figures of any that I have seen in the Indies. 
They could not give me any account of the country where 
the guides were taking me. . . . 

It was the Lord's pleasure that, after having journeyed 
across these deserts seventy-seven days, I arrived at the 
province they call Quivira, to which the guides were con- 
ducting me, and where they had described to me houses of 
stone, with many stories ; and not only are they not of stone, 
but of straw, but the people in them are as barbarous as all 
those whom I have seen and passed before this ; they do 
not have cloaks, nor cotton of which to make these, but use 
the skins of the cattle they kill, which they tan, because they 
are settled among these on a very large river. . . . The 
country itself is the best I have ever seen for producing all 
the products of Spain, for besides the land itself being very 
fat and black and being very well watered by the rivulets 
and springs and rivers, I found prunes like those of Spain 
. . . and nuts and very good sweet grapes and mulberries. 
I have treated the natives of this province, and all the others 
whom I found wherever I went, as well as was possible, 
agreeably to what Your Majesty had commanded, and they 
have received no harm in any way from me or from those 
who went in my company. . . . And what I am sure of is 
that there is not any gold nor any other metal in all that 
country, and the other things of which they had told me are 
nothing but little villages, and in many of these they do not 
plant anything and do not have any houses except of skins 
and sticks, and they wander around with the cows ; so that 
the account they gave me was false, because they wanted to 
persuade me to go there with the whole force, believing that 
as the way was through such uninhabited deserts, and from 



Cows = 
buffalo. 

This is the 
earliest ac- 
count of the 
Indians of 
the plains. 



Now Kansas 



Coronado 

got probably 
as far as 
eastern 
Kansas. 



8 Discoveries [1541 

the lack of water, they would get us where we and our horses 
would die of hunger. ... I have done all that I possibly 
could to serve Your Majesty and to discover a country where 
God Our Lord might be served and the royal patrimony of 
Your Majesty increased, as your loyal servant and vassal. 
In New For since I reached the province of Cibola, to which the 

viceroy of New Spain sent me in the name of Your Majesty, 
^'^^^g'jPco" seeing that there were none of the things there of which 
Friar Marcos had told, I have managed to explore this 
country for 200 leagues and more around Cibola, and the 
Rio Grande, best place I have found is this river of Tiguex where I am 
now, and the settlements here. It would not be possible to 
establish a settlement here, for besides being 400 leagues 
Pacific Ocean from the North sea and more than 200 from the South sea, 
California with which it is impossible to have any sort of communica- 
respectiveiy. jJqi;,^ ^^g country is SO cold, as I have written to Your Majesty, 
that apparently the winter could not possibly be spent here, 
because there is no wood, nor cloth with which to protect 
the men, except the skins which the natives wear and some 
small amount of cotton cloaks. I send the viceroy of New 
Spain an account of everything I have seen in the countries 
where I have been, and as Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas 
is going to kiss Your Majesty's hands, who has done much 
and has served Your Majesty very well on this expedition, 
and he will give Your Majesty an account of everything here, 
as one who has seen it himself, I give way to him. And 
may Our Lord protect the Holy Imperial Catholic person 
of Your Majesty, with increase of greater kingdoms and 
powers, as your loyal servants and vassals desire. From 

this province of Tiguex, October 20, in the year 1541. 
Your Majesty's humble servant and vassal, who would kiss 
the royal feet and hands : 

Francisco Vazquez Coronado. 

Coronado''s letter to tlie king, October 20, 1541 ; translated by 
George Parker VVinship, TJic Coronado Expedition, 1^40-1^42 
(Washington, 1896), 580-583 /rtij^/w. 



No. 4] 



Drak( 



4. An English Plundering Voyage 

(1578-1579) 

WHEN Frances Drake had passed y^ straytes [straits] 
of Magellan, the first land hee fell w"' [with] was 
an Hand named Mocha, wher , . . hee w"" ten of his 
company went on shore, thincking ther to have taken in fresh 
water. Two of the company going far into the Hand were 
intercepted and cut of[f] by the Indians that inhabite the 
Hand . . . They stayed heere but one day, but set sayle 
toward y* coast of Chile, wher ariving they met with an 
Indian in a canoa nere the shore, who thincking them to have 
bin [been] Spaniards, tould them that behind the [them], 
at a place called St. Yago, there was a Spanish schip [ship], 
for w''*' [which] good nves [news] they gave him divers 
trifles. The Indian being ioyfuU [joyful] therof went on 
shore and brought them ij. [2] sheepe and a small quantyty 
of fish, and so they returned back againe to St. Yago to 
seeke the Spanish ship (for they had overshot y^ place before 
they were ware) ; and when they came thither, they found 
the same ship and in her 3 Negros and viij. [8] Spaniards ; 
they of the ship thincking Drakes [men] to have bin Span- 
iards, welcomed them with a drum, and made redy a great 
buttiro [butt] of wyne of Chile to have made them drinck ; 
but when Drakes men were entred, one of them, whose name 
was Tom Moone, strake y^ Spanish pilate w"^ his fist of [on] 
the face, saying, Abassho Pirra, w'^'^ is to say in English, Go 
downe, dogg, and then the poore Spaniards being sore 
afrayde went downe into the hould of the ship, all saving one 
of them, who leping out at the stern of the ship swam on 
shore, and gave warning to them of the towne of their com- 
ing. When Drake had taken this ship and stowed the men 
vnder hatches, hee tooke her bote and his owne boote [boat] 
and manned them both w"" his men, and went to set vpon 



Anony- 
mous. 
This brief 
abstract of 
Drake's voy- 
age, famous 
from being 
the tirst Eng- 
lish expedi- 
tion to sail 
in the Pacific 
Ocean, coin- 
cides on the 
whole with 
the longer 
and better- 
known 
accounts, 
though it 
adds some 
things not 
noticed by 
them. There 
was no war 
between 
England and 
Spain, and 
Drake's voy- 
age was a 
kind of pri- 
vate hostility, 
almost pi- 
racy. — For 
Drake, see 
Contempo- 
raries, I, 
Nos. 30, 31 ; 
on other 
English free- 
booters. Con- 
temporaries, 
I, Nos. 28, 
29. 33- 



lO 



Discoveries 



[1578-1579 



Drake was a 
Protestant. 



20 pounds, 
or a value of 



80 pounds, a 
value of 
about 
^40,000. 



the towne of S. Yago . . . hee found there a chappell, w'^'' he 
rifled and tooke from thence a chahce of silv"" and twoo 
cmets of silver . . . and the altar cloth, all w'''' hee tooke 
away with him and brought them on boord [board], and 
gave all the spoyle of that chappell to Mr. Fletcher, his 
precher, at his coiiiing on boorde . . . Drake ... set 
sayle and bent his course towards a place called Arica, where 
he found in the haven iij small barcks, and rifling them, he 
found in one of the [them] 57 slabs of fine silver weing 
[weighing] about 20" weight eche [each] of them. These 
slabs were about the bignes of a brick batt eche one of them, 
and one of y*^ two other barks was set on fire by one Fuller 
and one Tom Marcks, and so burned to the very water. 
There were not in those iij barcks one prson [person], for 
they mistrusting no theves were all gone on shore. In this 
towne of Arica were about 20 howses, which Drake would 
have set vppon if hee had had more company with him, but 
wanting company of pirates he depted [departed] hence, 
having still with him the Grand Capitaine of St. Yago ; but 
within one day after he was gone from this haven of Arica, 
he cast of [f] the Grand Capitaine, clapping her helme fast 
on the lee and let her drive to seaward without any creature 
in her. From hence hee sayled toward Lyma ... At his 
departure from the haven of Lyma he cut all the cables of 
the ships there and let them drive to seaward, and so made 
speed toward Payta, thincking there to have founde the 
Cacafoga, but she was gone before he arived there toward 
Panama, whom he still followed amayne, but betwene Payta 
and Cape St. Franc[i]s hee met with a barck laden with 
ropes and tackell for shipps. This ship hee rifled, and found 
in her about 80'' weight of gould, and he tooke out of her 
greate quantyty of ropes to store his own ship, and so let her 
go. The owner of this ship was a frier. He found also in 
her a greate crucifix of goulde, and certaine emeralds neere 
as longe as a mans finger. From this robbery following still 



No. 5j 



Drak( 



1 1 



after the Cacafoga, hee overtooke her at Cape St, Frances, 
whom hee had long wisshed for. In his iorney [journey] 
he pmised y' [promised that] whosoever should overtake 
her should have his cheine [chain] of gould for his 
labour. This did John Drake descry on St. Davids day, 
being the first of March, about viij. of the clock in y^ after- 
none, and boorded her about v. of the clock ; and in the 
boording of her hee shot downe her misen mast, and so 
entred her, and found in her about So^' weight of gould, and 
13. chests full of royalls of plate, and so mooch [much] 
silver as did ballas[t] the Goulden Hinde. . . . the Pylats Drake's ship, 
[pilot's] name was Don Francisco, who had two cupps of 
silver gilt clene over, to whom Drake said at his departure 
as followeth : Seignior Pilate, you have ij. cupps and I must 
needes have one of them, w*^^ the Pilate yeelded vnto will- 
ingly, because he could not chuse. , . . Drake watered his 
ship and departed, sayling northwards till he came to 48. gr. 48*^ north 
of the septentrionall latitud, still finding a very lardge sea coast of"" 
trending toward the north, but being afraid to spend long Oregon, 
time in seeking for the straite, hee turned back againe, still 
keping along the cost [coast] as nere land as hee might, 
vntill hee came to 44. gr., and the [there] hee found a 
harborow [harbor] for his ship, where he grouded [grounded] Probably 
his ship to trim her . . . cisco Bay. 

Francis Fletcher, The World Encotnpassed by Sir Francis 
Drake (Hakluyt Society, Works issued, Londori, 1854), Ap- 
pendix iii, \']%-\%\ passim. 



5. The First English Exploration (1607) 



Anony- 
mous. From 
a journal 
kept by a 
companion 



MAY 2 1 [1607]. — Thursday, the 21st of May, Capt 
Newport (having fitted our shallop with provision rh^j^fo^j^er 
and all necessaryes belonging to a discovery) tooke five Newport, 



I 2 



Discoveries 



[1607 



commander 
of the vessels 
that brought 
over the 
Jamestown 
settlers. The 
extract 
describes 
an exploring 
voyage which 
they made, 
with Captain 
John Smith 
and twenty- 
three others, 
up the James 
River from 
Jamestown 
to the Falls. 
— For the 
founding 
of Virginia, 
S&& American 
History Leaf- 
lets, No. 27; 
Contempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
62-64. 



NearHaxall? 



Usually 
spelled 
"weroance' 
= chief. 



gentlemen, four maryners, and fourteen saylors ; with whome 
he proceeded, with a perfect resolutyon not to returne, but 
either to finde the head of this ryver, the laake mentyoned 
by others heretofore, the sea againe, the mountaynes Apa- 
latsi [Appalachian], or some issue. , . . 

May 22, Fryday. — Omitting no tyme, we passed up some 
sixteen myle further, where we founde an ilet, on which 
were many turkeys, and greate store of young byrdes like 
black-birdes ; whereof wee tooke dyvers, which wee brake 
our fast withall. Now, spying eight salvages [savages] in a 
canoa, we haled them by our worde of kyndnes [kindness], 
" Wingapoh [good friends] " ; and they came to us. In 
conference by signes with them, one seemed to understand 
our intentyon, and offred with his foote to describe the river 
to us : so I gave him a pen and paper (showing first the 
use), and he layd out the whole river from the Chesseian 
[Chesapeake] Bay to the end of it, so farr as passadg was 
for boats. . . . 

May 23, Satturday. — We passed a few short reaches ; 
and, five mile of[f] Poore Cottage, we went ashore. Heer 
we found our kinde comrads againe, who had gyven notice 
all along as they came of us ; by which we were entertayned 
with much courtesye in every place. VVe found here a 
wiroans (for so they call their kyngs), who satt upon a matt 
of reeds, with his people about him. He caused one to be 
layd for Capt. Newport ; gave us a deare [deer] roasted, 
which, according to their custome, they seethed [boiled] 
againe. His people gave us muUberyes, sodd [sodden] 
wheate, and beanes ; and he caused his weomen to make 
cakes for us. He gave our captain his crowne ; which was 
of deare's hayre [hair], dyed redd. Certifying him of our 
intentyon [to go] up the ryver, he was willing to send 
guydes with us. . . . Now . . . newes came that the 
greate Kyng Powatah [Powhatan] was come . . . Him 
wee saluted with silence ; sitting still on our matts, our 



No. 5] 



Newport 



13 



captain in the myddest [midst] ; but presented (as before 
we dyd [did] to Kyng Arahatec) gyftes of dyvers sorts — 
as penny-knyves, sheeres [shears], belles, beades, glasse 
toyes, &c. — more amply then [than] before. Now, this 
king appointed five men to guyde us up the river, and sent 
posts before to provyde us victuall. . . . Now, the day 
drawing on, we made signe to be gone ; wherewith he was 
contented, and sent six men with us : we also left a man 
with him, and departed. But now, rowing some three myle 
in shold [shallow] water, we came to an overfall, impassible 
for boates any further. Here the water falles downe through 
great mayne [vast] rocks from ledges of rocks above, two 
fadome [fathom] highe ; in which fall it maketh divers httle 
iletts, on which might be placed a hundred water-milnes 
[mills] for any uses. Our mayne ryver ebbs and flowes 
four foote, even to the skert of this downfall : shippes of two 
hundred or three hundred toone [ton] may come to within 
five myle hereof, and the rest [is] deepe inoughe for barges 
or small vessells that drawe not above six foote water. 
Having viewed this place, betweene content and greefe 
[grief], we left it for this night, determyning the next day 
to fitt ourselfe for a march by land. . . . 

May 24 . . . Now, sitting upon the banck by the overfall, 
beholding the sonne [sun], he [Powhatan] began to tell us 
of the tedyous travell we should have if wee proceeded any 
further ; that it was a daye and a halfe jorney to Monanacah ; 
and, if we went to Quirauck, we should get no vittailes [vic- 
tuals], and be tyred [tired] ; and sought by all meanes to 
disswade our captayne from going any further. Also he 
tolde us that the Monanacah was his enemye ; and that he 
came downe at the fall of the leafe, and invaded his countrye. 
Now, what I conjecture of this I have left to a further ex- 
perience. But our captayne, out of his discretyon (though 
we would faine have scene further ; yea, and himselfe as 
desirous also), checkt his intentyon, and retorned to his 



Waterfalls, 
or rather 
rapids ; 
present site 
of the city of 
Richmond. 



An Indian 
tribe at the 
head of the 
James River 

Quirauck = 
the Blue 
Ridge. 



14 



Discoveries 



[1615 



I.e. James, 
King. 



boate ; as holding it much better to please the kyng (with 
whome, and all of his command, he had made so faire way) 
then [than] to prosecute his owne fancye or satisfye our 
requests. So, upon one of the little iletts at the mouth of 
the falls, he sett up a crosse, with this inscriptyon, — " laco- 
bus, Rex, 1607;" and his owne name belowe. At the 
erecting hereof, we prayed for our kyng, and our owne pros- 
perous succes in this his actyon [action]. ... So farr as 
we could discerne the river above the overfall, it was full of 
huge rocks. About a myle of[f], it makes a pretty bigg 
iland. It runnes up betweene highe hilles, which increase in 
height, one above another, so farr as wee sawe. Now, our 
kynde [kind] consort's relatyon sayth (which I dare well 
beleeve, in that I found not any one report false of the river 
so farr as we tryed, or that he told us untruth in any thing 
els whatsoever), that, after a daye's jorney or more, this 
river devyds [divides] itselfe into two branches, which both 
wind from the mountaynes Quirauck. Here he whispered 
with me, that their caquassun [copper] was gott in the bites 
of rocks, and betweene cliffs in certayne vaynes [veins]. . . . 

American Antiquarian Society, Transactions and Collections 
([Boston,] i860), IV, J\fi-ii^ passim. 



By Samuel 

SiKUR DE 

Champlain 
(t 163s). a 
French naval 
officer, 
founder of 
Quebec, and 
later gov- 
ernor of 
Canada. 
The French 
had discov- 
ered the 
river in 1534 



6. A French Exploration (1615) 

ON the 9th of the month [July, 1615] I embarked with 
two others, namely, one of our interpreters and my 
man, accompanied by ten savages in . . . two canoes . . . 
We continued our voyage up the River St. Lawrence some 
six leagues . . . 

Continuing our journe}' by land, after leaving the river of 
the Algonquins, we passed several lakes where the savages 
carry their canoes, and entered the lake of the Nipissings . . . 



No. 6] Champlain 1 5 

Thence I had them guide me to Carhagouha, which was (see Contem- 

fortified by a triple paHsade of wood thirty-five feet high for no.'^ss)!' ' 

its defence and protection. In this village Father Joseph The French 

, J ^ 1 ,, enmity with 

was staying, whom we saw and were very glad to find well, the Iroquois, 

... On the twelfth day of August the Recollect Father ^^f^^eiVe^^ 

celebrated the holy mass, and a cross was planted near a scribed by 

small house apart from the village, which the savages built beiow.^b^e-'^ 

while I was staying there, awaiting the arrival of our men came a mat- 

and their preparation to go to the war, in which they had importance 

been for a long time engaged. . . . q"^|.^^t ''^^^^l 

I was glad to find this opportunity for gratifying my desire gies. — For 

.... , , , r ^ • T ■ • 1 Champlain's 

of obtammg a knowledge of their country, it is situated earlier ex- 
only seven days from where the Dutch go to traffic . . . P'o'fon. see 

-' -' ° Lontenipora- 

The savages there, assisted by the Dutch, make war upon vies, i, No. 

them, take them prisoners, and cruelly put them to death ; |?rencii ex-*^ 

and indeed they told us that the preceding year, while mak- piorations, 

r 1 T^ 1 1 • Old South 

ing war, they captured three of the Dutch, who were assist- Leaflets, No. 

ing their enemies, as we do the Attigouautans [a principal f'glat^ieTi' 

tribe of the Hurons], and while in action one of their own ch. v; ii.ch. 
men was killed. ... 

On the 9th of the month of October our savages going =^samt°" 

out to reconnoitre met eleven savages, whom they took Gabriel, in 

„, . , - . 1 , the township 

prisoners. They consisted of four women, three boys, one of Tiny, Sim- 
girl, and three men . . . one of the chiefs, on seeing the Canada^ "'^' 
prisoners, cut off" the finger of one of these poor women ^s , , 
a beginning of their usual punishment ; upon which I inter- lects were an 
posed and reprimanded the chief, Iroquet, representing to ^'^onks! 
him that it was not the act of a warrior, as he declared him- -q^^^^^ trad- 
self to be, to conduct himself with cruelty towards women, ing place = 
who have no defence but their tears, and that one should see c'ontem- 
treat them with humanity on account of their helplessness P^/'^fies, i, 

^ ' Nos. 38, 40. 

and weakness ; and I told him that on the contrary this act . 

would be deemed to proceed from a base and brutal courage, fingers^'was a 

and that if he committed any more of these cruelties he "f"'^' "^""i" 

-' pliment ot 

would not give me heart to assist them or favor them in the the Iroquois. 



i6 



Discoveries 



[1615 



In the origi- 
nal there is 
a capital pic- 
ture of Cham- 
plain firing 
his arquebus, 
or rude gun. 



For the pur- 
pose of set- 
ting fire to 
the fort. 



war. To which the only answer he gave me was that their 
enemies treated them in the same manner, but that, since 
this was displeasing to me, he would not do anything more 
to the women, although he would to the men. 

The next day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived 
befor^ the fort of their enemies, where the savages made 
some skirmishes with each other, although our design was 
not to disclose ourselves until the next day, which however 
the impatience of our savages would not permit, both on 
account of their desire to see fire opened upon their enemies, 
and also that they might rescue some of their own men who 
had become too closely engaged, and were hotly pressed. 
Then I approached the enemy, and although I had only a 
few men, yet we showed them what they had never seen 
nor heard before ; for, as soon as they saw us and heard the 
arquebus shots and the balls whizzing in their ears, they 
withdrew speedily to their fort, carrying the dead and 
wounded in this charge. We also withdrew to our main 
body, with five or six wounded, one of whom died. 

This done, we withdrew to the distance of cannon range, 
out of sight of the enemy, but contrary to my advice and to 
what they [the Indian allies] had promised me. . . . 

. . . the greater part of the savages began to carry wood 
against the palisades, but in so small quantity that the fire 
could have no great effect. There also arose such disorder 
among them that one could not understand another, which 
greatly troubled me. In vain did I shout in their ears and 
remonstrate to my utmost with them as to the danger to 
which they exposed themselves by their bad behavior, but 
on account of the great noise they made they heard nothing. 
Seeing that shouting would only burst my head, and that my 
remonstrances were useless for putting a stop to the dis- 
order, I did nothing more, but determined together with 
my men to do what we could, and fire upon such as we 
could see. 



-.0.6] Champlain 17 

Meanwhile the enemy profited by our disorder to get 
water and pour it so abundantly that you would have said 
brooks were flowing through their spouts, the result of which 
was that the fire was instantly extinguished, while they did 
not cease shooting their arrows, which fell upon us like hail. 
But the men on the cavalier [rampart] killed and maimed 
many. We were engaged in this combat about three hours, 
in which two of our chiefs and leading warriors were 
wounded, namely, one called Ochateguain and another 
Orani, together with some fifteen common warriors. The 
others, seeing their men and some of the chiefs wounded, 
now began to talk of a retreat without farther fighting, in 
expectation of the five hundred men, whose arrival could 
not be much delayed. Thus they retreated, a disorderly 
rabble. 

Moreover the chiefs have in fact no absolute control over 
their men, who are governed by their own will and follow 
their own fancy, which is the cause of their disorder and the 
ruin of all their undertakings ; for, having determined upon 
anything with their leaders, it needs only the whim of a 
villain, or nothing at all, to lead them to break it off and 
form a new plan. Thus there is no concert of action among 
them, as can be seen by this expedition. 

Now we withdrew into our fort . . . and ... it was not 
possible to return again against their enemies, as I told them 
it was their duty to do. . . . 

E. F. Slafter, editor. Voyages of Samuel de Champlain (trans- 
lated by Charles Pomeroy Otis, in Prince Society, Publications^ 
Boston, 1882), III, \\\-\-}yiif passim. 



By John 
Evelyn 
(1620-1706), 
a man inti- 
niaie with 
many distin- 
sjjuished con- 
temporaries, 
a type of 
an accom- 
plished and 
public-spir- 
ited gentle- 
man of the 
seventeenth 
century. His 
diary is one 
of the best 
mirrors of the 
period, and 
illustrates the 
life of gentle- 
men, like 
Winthrop 
and Penn, 
who came to 
America. — 
For an earlier 
description of 
England, see 
Contempora- 
ries, I, No. 44. 

" Mock- 
parliament- 
men " = 
members of 
the " Long 
Parliament." 

Punishment 
by fire disap- 
peared about 
forty years 
later. 



CHAPTER II — CONDITIONS OF 
SETTLEMENT 

7. Life in England (i 652-1 668) 

MARCH 6 [1652]. Saw the magnificent funeral of 
that Arch-rebell Ireton, carried in pomp from Som- 
erset House to Westm'' [Westminster], accompanied with 
clivers regiments of souldiers horse and foote ; then marched 
y'' mourners, Gen'. Cromwell (his father-in-law), his mock- 
parliament-men, officers, and 40 poore men in gownes, 3 led 
horses in housings of black cloth, 2 led in black velvet, 
and his charging-horse all cover'd over with embrodery and 
gold on crimson velvet ; then the guydons [flags], ensignes, 
4 heraulds carrying the armes of the State (as they cal'd 
it), namely, y*^ red crosse and Ireland, with the casq[ue], 
wreath, sword, spurrs, tScc. ; next, a chariot canopied of 
black velvet and 6 horses, in which was the corps[e] ; the 
pall held up by the mourners on foote ; the mace and sword, 
with other marks of his charge in Ireland (where he died 
of y*^ plague), carried before in black scarfs. Thus in a 
grave pace, drums cover'd with cloth, souldiers reversing 
their armes, they proceeded through the streetes in a very 
solemn manner. . . . 

10 May. Passing by Smithfield I saw a miserable creat- 
ure burning who had murder'd her husband. I went to see 
some workmanship of that admirable artist Reeves, famous 
for perspective and turning curiosities in ivorie. . . . 

11 [June]. . . . The weather being hot, and having 
sent my man on before, I rod[e] negligently under fovour 
of the shade, till within three miles of Bromley, at a place 

18 



No. 7] In England 19 

call'd the Procession Oake, two cut-throates started out, and Such adven- 
striking with long staves at y" horse and taking hold of the hjghwTvmen 
reines threw me downe, tooke my sword, and haled me into were frequent 

, . , \. ., r 11-1 "^ those 

a deepe thickett some quarter of a mile from the highway, times, 
where they might securely rob me, as they soone did. 
What they got of money was not considerable, but they 
took two rings, the one an emerald with diamonds, the 
other an onyx, and a pair of bouckles set with rubies and 
diamonds, which were of value, and after all bound my 
hands behind me, and my feete, having before puU'd off 
my bootes ; they then set me up against an oake, w"' most 
bloudy threats to cutt my throat if I offer'd to crie out or 
make any noise, for they should be within hearing, I not 
being the person they looked for. I told them if they had 
not basely surpriz'd me they should not have had so easy a 
prize, and that it would teach me never to ride neere an 
hedge, since had I ben in y" mid-way they durst not have 
adventur'd on me ; at which they cock'd their pistols, and 
told me they had long guns too, and were 14 companions. 
I begg'd for my onyx, and told them it being engraven with 
my armes would betray them, but nothing prevail'd. . . . 

... I heard afterwards that had it not been for his com- 
panion, a younger man, he would probably have kill'd me. 
He was afterwards charg'd with some other crime, but 
refusing to plead, was press'd to death. . . . 

25 [Dec.]. Christmas day, no sermon any where, no So in New 
Church being permitted to be open, so observ'd it at home. t^"f [f^g ^* 
The next day we went to Lewesham, where an honest 
divine preach'd. 

31 Dec. I adjusted all accompts, and render'd thanks 
to Almighty God for his mercys to me the yeare past. . . . 

II April [1653]. I went to take the aire in Hide Park, 
where every coach was made to pay a shilling, and horse 
6d. by the sordid fellow who had purchas'd it of the State i:f- °^ ,„ 

■' ' Cromwell s 

as they were card. . . . government. 



20 



Conditions 



[1652-1668 



At Oxford, 
" schools" 
mean exam- 
inations; 
the ceremony 
corresponds 
to our 
Commence- 
ment. 

Inceptor = 
candidate for 
degree of 
master of 
arts. 



Evelyn was 
fond of beau- 
tiful views 
and land- 
scape gar- 
dening. 

Evelyn's 
ideals of 
conduct were 
stricter than 
those gen- 
erally enter- 
tained by the 
nobility of the 
Restoration 
period. 



For New 
England 
Quakers, see 
below, No. 
so- 



il [May, 1654]. I now observed how the women began 
to paint themselves, formerly a most ignominious thing. . . . 

10 [July]. On Monday I went againe to y'^ Scholes 
[schools] to heare the severall Faculties, and in y^ after- 
noone tarried out the whole Act in St. Marie's, the long 
speeches of the Proctors, the Vice-Chancellor, the severall 
Professors, creation of Doctors by y" cap, ring, kisse, &c. 
those antient ceremonies and institution being as yet not 
vvholy abolish'd. Dr. Kendal, now Inceptor amongst others, 
performing his Act incomparably well, concluded it with an 
excellent oration, abating his Presbyterian animosities, which 
he witheld not even against that learned and pious divine 
Dr. Hammond. . . . 

Went back to Cadenham, and on y^ 19th to Sir Ed. 
Baynton's at Spie Park, a place capable of being made a 
noble seate ; but the humourous old Knight has built a long 
single house of 2 low stories on y" precipice of an incom- 
parable prospect, and landing on a bowling greene in y* 
park. The house is like a long barne, and has not a win- 
dow on y* prospect side. After dinner they went to bowles, 
and in the meanetime our coach-men were made so exceed- 
ingly drunk, that in returning home we escap'd greate dan- 
gers. This it seems was by order of the Knight, that all 
gentlemen's servants be so treated ; but the custome is 
barbarous, and much unbecoming a Knight, still lesse a 
Christian. . . . 

22 July. We departed and din'd at a ferme [farm] of 
my uncle Hungerford's, call'd Darneford Magna, situate in a 
vally under y* plaine, most sweetly water'd, abounding in 
trouts catch'd by speare in the night when they come 
attracted by a light set in y^ sterne of a boate. . . . 

[8 July, 1656]. I had y^ curiosity to visite some Quakers 
here in prison ; a new phanatic [fanatic] sect, of dangerous 
principles, who shew no respect to any man, magistrate or 
other, and seeme a melancholy proud sort of people, and 



No. 8] 



In England 



21 



exceedingly ignorant. One of these was said to have fasted 
20 daies, but another endeavouring to do y^ 



For the gov- 
... .1,1 ernment of 

hke, perish'd England, see 

on the loth, when he would have eaten but could not. . Old South 



1668. 8 Jan. I saw deepe and prodigious gaming at 
the Groome-Porters, vast heapes of gold squander'd away 
in a vaine and profuse manner. This I looked on as a 
horrid vice and unsuitable in a Christian Court. 

John Evelyn, Meinohs (edited by William Bray, London, 1819), 
I, 261-412 passun. 



Leaflets, Nos. 
5, 6, 19, 23-28, 
57-64- 



8. Reasons for Emigration (1641) 

WHEN a Kingdom beginneth to be over-burthened 
with a multitude of people (as England and Scot- 
land now do) to have a convenient place where to send 
forth Coloniesis no smal benefit : And such are the North- 
east and North-west parts of America, betweene the degrees 
of 25. and 45. of the North latitude, which, at this time doe 
even offer themselves unto us, to bee protected by us, against 
the knowne cruelty of the over-neare approaching Spaniard. 

A very large tract of ground containing spacious, health- 
full, pleasant, and fruitfuU countries, not only apt, but already 
provided of all things necessary for mans sustentation, Corne, 
Grasse, and wholsome cattell [cattle] in good competencie ; 
but Fish, Fowle, Fruits and Herbes in abundant variety. 

If wee should looke no further, then [than] the South of 
Virginia, (which is our owne) wee shall find there all man- 
ner of provision for life ; besides Merchantable Commodi- 
ties, Silke, Vines, Cotton, Tobacco, Deer-skins, Goat-skins, 
rich Furre, and Beavers good store, Timber, Brasse, Iron, 
Pitch, Tarre, Rosin ; and almost all things necessary for 
shipping, which if they shall bee employed that way ; they 
who are sent away may (with Gods blessing) within short 



By Rev- 
erend Wil- 
liam Cas- 

TELL(tl645), 

a clergyman 
of the Church 
of England, 
who was 
much inter- 
ested in the 
colonization 
of America 
and the con- 
version of 
the Indians 
there. The 
extract is 
from a peti- 
tion to 
Parliament. 
— For other 
reasons for 
colonization, 
see Contem- 
poraries, I, 
ch. vi. 

From 25° to 
45C = from 
southern 
Florida to 
Maine. 



22 



Conditions 



[1641 



Found in 
California 
two centuries 
later. 



For opinions 
of Spain, see 
Co7itempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
25, 30, 46. 



Ultimately 
the ruin of 
Spain. 



Bull of 1494. 
— See Con- 
temporaries, 
I, No. 18. 



time in due recompence of their setting forth, returne this 
Kingdome store of silver and gold, pearles and precious 
stones; for undoubtedly (if there be not a generall mistake 
in all Authors, who have written of these places) such treas- 
ure is to bee had, if not there, yet in places not farre remote, 
where (as yet) the Spaniard hath nothing to doe. And in 
case the Spaniard will bee troublesome to our Plantations, 
or shall (as it is generally conceived) bee found an Enemy 
to this Kingdome, there is no way more likely to secure 
England, then [than] by having a strong Navie there ; here- 
by wee may come to share, if not utterly to defeat him of 
that vaste Indian Treasure, wherewith hee setteth on fire 
so great a part of the Christian World, corrupteth many 
Counsellors of state, supporteth the Papacie, and generally 
perplexeth all reformed Churches. 

Nor need any scrupulous quere [query] bee made, whether 
wee may not assault an enemy in any place, or not esteeme 
them such as shall assault us in those places, where wee have 
as much to doe as they. The Spaniard claimeth indeed an 
Interest, little lesse then hereditarie in almost all America,. 
and the West Indies, but it is but by vertue of the Popes 
grant, which is nothing worth, as was long since determined 
by Queene Elizabeth, and her Councell ; so as for the Span- 
iard to debarre us in the liberty of our Plantations, or free- 
dome of commerce in those spacious countries, were over 
proudly to take upon him ; and for us to permit it were 
over-much to yeeld of our own right. 

Especially, when we may, as now we may, so easily helpe 
our selves : For your Petitioner conceiveth there is no great 
difficulty m the preparation here, or tediousnesse in the 
passage thither, or hazard when wee come there. The 
preparation of men and shipping, in respect of the daily 
happy expected accord between e us and the Scots, is (u})on 
the matter) already made ; and as for money it is in the 
power of this Honourable House to give sufficient, without 



Wo. 9] Virginia 2 3 

any grievance, or dislike of the Commonwealth, who (un- 
doubtedly) in the generall will thinke nothing grievous, 
which shall bee concluded by your wisedomes, expedient 
to such a pious and charitable worke. 

And as for the passage, how can it be thought either 
tedious or dangerous, it being ordinarily but six weekes 
sayle, in a sea much more secure from Pirats, and much 
more free from shipwrack, and enemies coasts, then [than] 
our ten or twelve moneths voyage into the East-Indies. And 
as for our good successe there, wee need not feare it. The 
natives being now every where more then [than] evfer, out 
of an inveterate hatred to the Spaniard, ready and glad to 
entertaine us. Our best friends the Netherlanders being 

with eight and twenty ships gone before to assist and further See below, 

^ A X,- X.- ^ ■ -.1 u No. 16. 

us. And which is much more, our going with a generall con- 
sent in Gods cause, for the promoting of the Gospel, and in- 
larging of his Church, may assure us of a more then [than] 
ordinary protection and direction. That hitherto wee have 
beene lesse successefull in our voyage that way, wee may 
justly impute it to this, that as yet they have not beene 
undertaken with such a generall consent, and with such a 
full reference to Gods glory as was requisite. 

A Petition of W. C. exhibited to the High Covrt of Parliament 
. . . for the Propagating of the Gospel in America . . . 
(1641), 11-15. 



Q. Indian Life (1600-161 'j) byhenry 

^ \ y' ^ / Spelman 

(I600-I622), 

To giue sum [some] satisfaction to my frends and con- who came to 
tentment unto others, w"^'' wish well to this viage [voy- boy^wlTs cap- 
age], and are desir[o]us to heare y* fashions of that cuntrye : I'^'^^j^^/jll^*^ 
I haue set doune [down] as well as I can, what I obserued in 1614, and 
y"' time I was amonge them. And therfore first concerninge \^^^ ^^Tev- 
ther [their] gods, yow [you] must understand that for y^ erai years. 



24 



Conditions 



[1609-1613 



He thus 
acquired an 
intimate per- 
sonal knowl- 
edge of their 
ways. — For 
Inchans and 
theirrelations 
with the col- 
onists, see 
Contempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
40, 60, 91, 92, 
123, 127, 133, 
134, 147, 162; 
II, ch. xviii. 

This would 
not hold true 
ofthe Indians 
of Mexico 
and Central 
America. 



The English 
caused much 
confusion of 
thought by 
calling sav- 
age chiefs 
" kings." 



most part they worship y*" diuell [devil], w'^'' y^ couniurers 
[conjurers] who are ther preests, can make apeare unto 
them at ther pleasuer, yet neuer y*" less [nevertheless] in 
euery euntry they haue a seuerall Image whom they call 
ther god. . . . 

PLACES of Habitation they haue but feaw [few] for y* 
greatest toune [town] haue not aboue 20 or 30 houses 
in it, Ther Biuldinge [buildings] are made like an ouen w' 
[with] a litell [little] hole to cum [come] in at But more spatius 
[spacious] w' in [within] hauinge a hole in the midest of y* 
house for smoke to goe out at. The Kinges houses are both 
broader and longer then y^ rest hauinge many darke wind- 
inges and turnings before any cum wher the Kinge is. But in 
that time when they goe a Huntinge y*" weomen goes to a 
place apoynted before, to biuld houses for ther husbands to 
lie in att night carienge [carrying] matts w' them to couer 
ther houses w' all [withal], and as the men goes furthur a 
huntinge the weomen follows to make houses, always carri- 
enge ther mattes w' them ther maner of ther Huntinge is 
thiss they meett sum 2 or 300 togither and hauinge ther 
bowes and arrows and euery one w' a fier [fire] sticke in 
ther hand they besett a great thikett round about, w""*" dunn 
[done] euery one sett fier on the ranke grass w'** y^ Deare 
seinge [seeing] fleeth from y*^ fier, and the menn cumminge 
[coming] in by a litell and litle [little and little] incloset// 
ther game in a narrow roome, so as w' ther Bowes and 
arrowes they kill them at ther pleasuer takinge ther skinns 
w"'^ is the greatest thinge they desier, and sume flesh for 
ther prouision. . . . 

THE King is not know[n] by any differenc[e] from 
other of y* chefe sort in y* euntry but only when he 
cums to any of ther howses they present him w' copper 
Beads or Vitall [victual], and shew much reuerence to him 



No. 9] Indian Life 25 

The preest are shauen on y'^ right side of ther head close 
to the scull only a litle locke leaft [left] at y* eare and sum 
of thes haue beards But y* common people haue no beards So to-day 
at all for they pull away ther hares [hairs] as fast as it growes i^°afs 
And they also cutt y""' heares on y*" right side of ther heade 
that it might not hinder them by flappinge about ther bow 
stringe, when they draw it to shoott, But on y® other side 
they lett it grow and haue a long locke hanginge doune 
[down] ther shoulder, 

AS for Armoure or dissipline in ware [war] the[y] haue 
not any. The weopons they vse for offence are 
Bowes and Arrowes w' a weapon like a hammer and ther 
Tomahaucks for defence w"*^ are shi[e]lds made of the 
barke of a tree and hanged on ther leaft shoulder to couer 
that side as they stand forth to shoote 

They neuer fight in open fields but always e[i]ther 
amonge reede or behind trees takinge ther oportunitie to 
shoot at ther enimies and till they can nocke [notch] 
another arrow they make the trees ther defence 

In y*^ time that I was ther I sawe a Battell [battle] fought 
betwene the Patomeck [Potomac] and the Masomeck, ther 
place wher they fought was a marish [marsh] ground full 
of Reede Beinge in the cuntry of the Patomecke the peopel 
of Masomeck weare [were] brought thether in Canoes w'''^ is 
a kind of Boate they haue made in the forme of an Hoggs A dugout 
trowgh [trough] But sumwhat more hollowed in, On Both 
sid[e]s they scatter them selues sum litle distant one from 
the other, then take they ther bowes and arrows and hauinge • 
made ridie [ready] to shoot they softly steale toward ther 
enimies, Sumtime squattinge doune and priinge [prying] if 
they can spie any to shoot at whom if at any time he so 
Hurteth that he can not flee they make hast[e] to him to 
knock him on the heade . . . 



26 



Conditions 



[1634 



WHEN they meet at feasts or otherwise they vse 
sprorts [sports] much hke to ours heare [here] in 
England as ther daunsinge [dancing], w''*' is Uke our darby- 
sher [Derbyshire] Hornepipe a man first and the;2 a woman 
and so through them all, hanging all in a round, ther is one 
w"*^ stand in the midest w' a pipe and a rattell [rattle] w' w'^'* 
when he beginns to make a noyes [noise] all the rest Gigetts 
[whirl] about wriinge [wrying] ther neckes and stampinge 
on y*^ ground 

They vse beside football play, w*"'^ wemen and young boyes 
doe much play at. The men neuer They make ther (looles 
[goals] as ours only they neuer fight nor pull one another 
doune 

The men play w' a litel balle lettinge it fall out of ther hand 
and striketh i/ w' the tope of his foot, and he that can strike 
the ball furthest winns that they play for. 

Henry Spelman, Relation of Virginia (edited by J. F. Hunne- 
well, London, 1872), \\-\^ passim. 



By John 
Sadler, an 
emigration 
broker, or 
agent, at Red 
Lion, in 
Bucklers- 
bury, Eng- 
land. Lady 
Verney had 
consulted 
him about 
the outfit 
necessary for 
her son, who 
was going out 
to Virginia ; 
Sadler gave 
the following 
advice. Of 



10. Requirements of an Emigrant (1634) 

IF it will please sir Edmund and your ladyshipp to bee 
ruled by my aduise, your sonne shoold [should] have 
with him iij [3] seruants at least, which may bee had heare 
[here] at a dayes warninge ; if I were to send 40 servants I 
coold [could] have them heere at a dayes warninge ; but, 
indede, I desierd "[desired], if it were possible, to have him 
bringe a cooper out of the country, which wee cannot get 
soe redily heare. Ruery servant hee sends over will stand 
him in xij'' [for] his passage and apparel fit for him, with 
other charges. After his cumming into Verginni?e, I doubt 
nott but by frends I have there hee shall bee well acomo- 



No. lo] Emigrant Supplies 27 



dated for his owne person, and at a resonable rate, and his 
men maye hkewise be taken of[f] his hande and dyated 
[dieted] for theyre [their] worke for the first yeare, and 
with some advantage to your sonne besides ; then the next 
yeare, if hee shall like the cuntry, and bee mynded to staye 
and settell a plantation him selfe, those servants will bee 
seasoned, and bee enabled to direct such others as shall bee 
sent vnto him from hence hearafter, or if hee shall nott like 
the cuntry, then hee maye sell theyre tyme they haue to 
serve him vnto other men that haue neede of servants, and 
make a good bennifitt of them, as alsoe of all such things 
as he shall carry with him, for ther is nothinge that wee 
carry from hence but if it cost 20^-. heare in England they 
doe geeve [give] there for it 30^-. 

Now, for his owne proper acomodation, I must intreat 
your ladiship that hee maye bring vp with him a fether bed, 
bolster, pillow, blanketts, rugg, and 3 payre [pair] of 
sheets, vnless you will please they shalbee bought heare ; 
it is but a spare horse the more to bring them vp. And lett 
nott his staye bee longer. If hee had cum vp nowe, I had 
then beespoack [bespoke] for him that acomodation (in 
regard of the intimasie I haue with the owners of the shipp) 
which he cannott haue in every shipp that goeth thether ; 
for hee shoold haue layne in the great cabbin, which is more 
then [than] an ordenary curtesie ; but I am afeard if the 
wynde cum fayre [fair] for them to bee gon, that theye will 
not staye past iij. or iiij. dayes longer at most. But, howe 
ever, ther shalbee nothinge wantinge in mee toe doe the 
best I can to gett him the best acomodation I maye in 
some other shipp, if hee doe cum toe [too] late. 

Maddam, the reson why I intreat your ladyshipp that hee 
may haue with him for his owne particular vse a fether bed, 
bolster, blanquetts, rugg, curtaynes,' and vallence is, that, 
althogh many howshowlds [households] in Verginia ar[e] 
soe well provided as to enterteyne a stranger with all thinges 



course, many 
other emi- 
grants came 
over who had 
little except 
their two 
hands as 
capital. — See 
Contempora- 
ries, I, 
No. 50. 

"xijli" = ^i2, 
perhaps the 
equivalent of 
^200 now. 



I.e. a pack- 
horse to carry 
them. 



28 



Conditions 



[1634 



Corn = 
grain, not 
Indian corn. 



I.e. liquors. 



About $95 
each, per- 
haps equal to 
Swo now. 



necessary for the belly, yeat [yet] few or non[e] ar[e] bet- 
ter provided for the back as yeat then [than] to serve theyre 
own turnes ; therfore tis necessary that hee bee provided of 
that for more asurance. 

Now if it will please your ladishipp that he maye haue ij. 
men with him, I haue hear inclosed sent a noate [account], 
as neare calculated as I can, what the charges will bee of ij. 
men, as alsoe a nother noate added ther vnto of such things 
as tis necessary hee doe carry over for sale ; som part of 
them to purchass corne against next year, as well for theys 
[those] seruants hee now carryes as for those he shall haue 
sent him next yeare, and for more asurance least [lest] there 
shoold happen to bee a scarsety [scarcity] in the cuntry, 
which some tymes dooth soe fall out through the covetious- 
nes of the planters, that strive to plant much tobacco and 
littell corne ; soe that want comes vpon som of them beefore 
they are aware of it. 

I haue alreddy bought the flower, the fowlinge peeces, the 
stronge waters, and the grosery wares, and for the rest I 
haue sought them out and know where to bee fitted with 
them at halfe a dayes warninge, but I durst nott proseede 
in buyinge them vntill I might heare farther your pleasure, 
which I coold wish might bee by him selfe vpon Satterdaye 
next by noone, and then I hoape [hope] in the after noone 
I might dispa[t]ch all, and hee might cum time enough toe 
goe awaye in this shipp, where I soe much desier hee shoold 
goe for the good acomodation that I am suer [sure] hee 
shoold haue there. 

This charge for him selfe and ij. men, with the provisions 
which is needfuU for him to carry, will cum toe 56" [56^], 
littell more or less ; and if you shall think fitt toe [to] lett 
him haue a third man it is but xij" [12^^] more, and truly 
it is the opinion of all that I haue or can conferr with all, 
that it is a greate deale better for him to have som seasoned 
men of his owne, when hee goes to settell a plantation him 



No. II] New England 



29 



selfe, then to haue all fresh men, because those men maye 
bee inabled to direct others that hee shall haue hearafter. 

John Bruce, editor, Letters and Papers of the Verney Family 
(Camden Society, London, 1853), 160-162. 



II. Some Rarities of New England 
(1663-1671) 

THE Six and twentieth [of July, 1663] we had sight 
of land. 

The Seven and twentieth we Anchored at Nantascot, in 
the afternoon I went aboard of a Ketch, with some other of 
our passengers, in hope to get to Boston that night ; but the 
Master of the Ketch would not consent. 

The Eight and twentieth being Tuesday, in the morning 
about 5 of the clock he lent us his Shallop and three of his 
men, who brought us to the western end of the town where 
we landed, and having gratified the men, we repaired to an 
Ordinary (for so they call their Taverns there) where we 
were provided with a liberal cup of burnt Madera-wine, and 
store of plum-cake, about ten of the clock I went about my 
Affairs. . . . 

The shore is Rockie, with high cliffs, having a multitude 
of considerable Harbours ; many of which are capacious 
enough for a Navy of 500 sail, one of a thousand, the Coun- 
trie within Rockie and mountanious, full of tall wood, one 
stately mountain there is surmounting the rest, about four 
score mile from the Sea : The description of it you have 
in my rarities of New-England, between the mountains are 
many ample rich . . . valleys as ever eye beheld, beset on 
each side with variety of goodly Trees, the grass man-high 
unmowed, uneaten and uselesly withering j within these val- 



No. II is 
by John 

JOSSELYN, il 
traveller w Im 
paid two 
visits to New 
England, in 
1638-39 and 
1663-71 re- 
spectively. 
Shortly after 
his return 
from his 
second trip 
he published 
the book 
from which 
extracts are 
given below. 
Though as a 
historian he 
is often inac- 
curate, his 
observations 
are valuable, 
and he writes 
in sprightly 
style. — For 
other pieces 
by Josselyn, 
see Contem- 
poraries, I, 
Nos. 125, 145. 
— On New 
England, see 
Contempora- 
ries, I, 
Part V. 

Nantasket, at 
the entrance 
to Boston 
Harbor. 

A ketch was 
a small two- 
masted 
vessel. 

The south- 
ern White 
Mountains. 

The so-called 
" intervales." 



30 



Conditions 



[1663-1671 



I.e. original 
source. 



A groat was 
four pence. 



leys are spacious lakes or ponds well stored with Fish and 
Beavers ; the original of all the great Rivers in the Countrie, 
of which there are many with lesser streams (wherein are an 
infinite of fish) manifesting the goodness of the soil . . . 
The whole Countrie produceth springs in abundance replen- 
ished with excellent waters, having all the properties ascribed 
to the best in the world. . . . 

Frogs too there are in ponds and upon dry land, they 
chirp like Birds in the spring, arid latter end of summer 
croak like Toads. . . . 

The Toad is of two sorts, one that is speckled with white, 
and another of a dark earthy colour ; there is of them that 
will climb up into Trees and sit croaking there ; but whether 
it be of a third sort, or one of the other, or both, I am not 
able to affirm ; but this I can testifie that there be Toads of 
the dark coloured kind that are as big as a groat loaf. . . . 

Now before I proceed any further, I must (to prevent 
misconstructions) tell you that these following Creatures, 
though they be net properly accounted Serpents, yet they 
are venomous and pestilent Creatures. As, first the Rat, 
but he hath been brought in since the English came thither, 
but the Mouse is a Native, of which there are several kinds 
not material to be described ; the Bat or flitter mouse is 
bigger abundance than any in England and swarm, wliich 
brings me to the insects or cut-wa[i]sted Creatures again, 
as first the honey-Bee, which are carried over by the Eng- 
lish and thrive there exceedingly . . . But the wasp is 
common, and they have a sort of wild humble-Bee that 
breed in little holes in the earth. Near upon twenty years 
since there lived an old planter at Black-point, who on a 
Sunshiiie day about one of the clock lying upon a green 
bank not far from his house, charged his Son, a lad of 12 
years of age to awaken him when he had slept two hours, 
the old man falls asleep and lying upon his back gaped with 
his mouth wide [open] . . . after a little while the lad sit- 



No. ii] 



New England 



31 



Possibly 
diphtheria. 



ting by spied a humble-Bee creeping out of his Fatliers 
mouth, which taking wing flew quite out of sight, the hour 
as the lad ghest [guessed] being come to awaken his Father 
he jogg'd him and called aloud Father, Father, it is two a 
clock, but all would not rouse him, at last he sees the hum- 
ble-Bee returning, who lighted upon the sleepers lip and 
walked down . . . and presently he awaked. . . . 

The Diseases that the English are afflicted with, are the 
same that they have in England, with some proper to New- 
England . . . 

. . . they are troubled with a disease in the mouth or 
throat which hath proved iliortal to some in a very short 
time, Quinsies, and Impostumations of the Almonds [ton- Tonsiiitis. 
sils], with great distempers of cold. Some of our JVeia- 
England writers affirm that the English are never or very 
rarely heard to sneeze or cough, as ordinarily they do in 
England, which is not true. For a cough or stitch upon 
cold, Wormwood, Sage, Marygolds, and Crabs-claws boiled 
in posset-drink and drunk off" very warm, is a soveraign Posset = a 
meaicme. ... ^ posed of hot 

Catts and Dogs are as common as in England, but our milk and 
Dogs in time degenerate ; yet they have gallant Dogs both "^'^°''' 
for fowl & wild Beasts all over the Countrey : the Indians 
store themselves with them, being much better for their 
turns, than their breed of wild dogs . . . 

Of English Poultry too there is good store, they have 
commonly three broods in a year ; the hens by that time 
they are three years old have spurs like the Cock, but not 
altogether so big, but as long, they use to crow often, which 
is so rare a thing in other Countries, that they have a proverb 
Gallina recinit a Hen crowes. ... 



John Josselyn, An Account of Two Voyages to New-England 
(London, 1675), 41-ig^ passim. 



32 



Conditions 



to82 



By Thomas 
Ash, a clerk 
on board his 
majesty's 
ship Rich- 
mond, sent 
out to Caro- 
Hna in 1680 
with special 
royal instruc- 
tions to 
inquire into 
the state of 
thatprovince. 
Ash gives 
the earliest 
account of 
the English 
settlers in 
Carolma 
before their 
settlement of 
Charleston. 
One of the 
chief reasons 
of the suc- 
cess of the 
English col- 
onies lay in 
the fact that 
they settled 
inside the 
corn belt, 
which fur- 
nished un- 
failing food. 
— For the 
Carolinas, 
see Contem- 
poraries, I, 
ch. xii ; for 
corn, Con- 
temporaries, 
I, No. 66. 



Corn whis- 
key, made by 
a still. 



12. Praise of Indian Corn (1682) 

BUT now their Gardens begin to be supplied 
with such European Vlants and Herbs as are 
necessary for the Kitchen, viz. Potatoes, 'Lettice, Coleworts 
[cabbage], Parsnip, Turnip, Carrot and Reddish : Their 
Gardens also begin to be beautified and adorned with such 
Herbs and Flowers which to the Smell or Eyfe are pleasing 
and agreable, viz. The Rose, Tulip, Carnation and Lilly. &c. 
Their Provision which grows in the Field is chiefly Indian 
Corn, which produces a vast Increase, yearly, yielding Two 
plentiful Harvests, of which they make wholesome Bread, 
and good Bisket, which gives a strong, sound, and nourish- 
ing Diet ; with Milk I have eaten it dress'd various ways : 
Of the Juice of the Corn, when green, the Spaniards with 
Chocolet, aromatiz'd with Spices, make a rare Drink, of an 
excellent Delicacy. I have seen the English amongst the 
Caribbes roast the green Ear on the Coals, and eat it with a 
great deal of Pleasure : The Indians in Carolina parch 
the ripe Corn, then pound it to a Powder, putting it in a 
Leathern Bag : When they use it, they take a little quan- 
tity of the Powder in the Palms of their Hands, mixing it 
with Water, and sup it off: with this they will travel 
several days. In short, it's a Grain of General Use to Man 
and Beast, many thousands of both kinds in the West Indies 
having from it the greater part of their Subsistence. The 
American Physicians observe that it breeds good Blood, 
removes and opens Oppellations and Obstructions.. At 
Carolina they have lately invented a way of makeing with 
it good sound Beer ; but it's strong and heady : By Macer- 
ation, when duly fermented, a strong Spirit Hke Brandy 
may be drawn off from it, by the help of an Alevibick. 

T[hoiTias] A[sh], Carolina; or a Description of the Present 
State of that Country (London, 1682), 13-14. 



CHAPTER III — FIRST ERA OF 
COLONIZATION 

13. Settlement of Virginia (1607) 

HONOURABLE Gentlemen, for so many faire and 
Nauigable Riuers so neere adioyning [adjoining], 
and piercing thorovv [through] so faire a naturall Land, free 
from any inundations, or large Fenny vnwholsome Marshes, 
I haue not seene, read, nor heard of : And for the building 
of Cities, Townes, and Wharfage, if they will vse the meanes, 
where there is no more ebbe nor floud [flood], Nature in 
few places afifoords any so conuenient, for salt Marshes or 
Quagmires. In this tract of lames Towne Riuer I know 
very few ; some small Marshes and Swamps there are, but 
more profitable then [than] hurtfuU : and I thinke there is 
more low Marsh ground betwixt Eriffe and Chelsey, then 
[than] Kecoughion and the Falls, which is about one hun- 
dred and eighty miles by the course of the Riuer. 

Being enioyned [enjoined] by our Commission not to 
vnplant nor wrong the Saluages [savages], because the 
channell was so neere the shore, where now is lames Towne, 
then a thicke groue of trees ; wee cut them downe, where 
the Saluages pretending as much kindnesse as could bee, 
they hurt and slew one and twenty of vs in two houres : At 
this time our diet was for most part water and bran, and 
three ounces of little better stuffe in bread for fine men a 
meale, and thus we lined neere three moneths : our lodgings 
vnder boughes of trees, the Saluages being our enemies, 
whom we neither knew nor vnderstood ; occasions I thinke 
sufificient to make men sicke and die. 



Written in 
1626 by 
Captain 
John Smith 
(1580-1631), 
soldier, ex- 
plorer, colo- 
nist, and later 
president of 
Virginia. 
Though he 
was some- 
what boastful 
in relating 
his personal 
exploits, it is 
largely due to 
his efforts 
that the 
Jamestown 
colony suc- 
ceeded. In 
spite of 
obvious ex- 
aggerations, 
Smith's 
books are 
valuable con- 
temporary 
records from 
one who had 
the best of 
opportunities 
for observa- 
tion. — For 
other pieces 
by Smith, see 
Humphrey, 
Colonial 
Tracts, Nos. 
13, 14 ; Amer- 
ican History 
Leajlets. No. 
27 ; Contem- 



33 



34 



First Colonization 



[1607 



poraries, I, 
Nos. 62, 90. 
— For Vir- 
ginia, see 
Contempora- 
ries, I, chs. 
ix, x; Am. 
Hist. Studies, 
No. 2. 

Erith and 
Chelsea, 
English 
towns. 

Kecoughton, 
now Hamp- 
ton, Va. 

The Falls, 
now Rich- 
mond, Va. 

Unplant = 
dispossess. 

The site of 
Jamestown 
was ill- 
chosen, being 
low, swampy, 
and un- 
healthy; it 
is now no 
longer 
inhabited. 

In later edi- 
tions of his 
account, 
Smith intro- 
duced the 
doubtful 
story of 
Pocahontas's 
throwing her- 
self between 
him and the 
hatchet. — 
See also Con- 
temporaries, 
1,64. 



Necessity thus did inforce me with eight or nine, to try 
conclusions amongst the Sakiages, that we got, prouision 
which recouered the rest being most sicke. Six weeks I 
was led captiue by those Barbarians, though some of my 
men were slaine, and the rest fled, yet it pleased God to 
make their great Kings daughter the means to returne me 
safe to lames towne, and releeue [relieve] our wants, and 
then our Commonwealth was in all eight and thirty, the 
remainder of one hundred and fine. 

Being supplied with one hundred and twenty, with twelue 
men in a boat of three tuns, I spent foureteene weeks in 
those large waters ; the contents of the way of my boat pro- 
tracted by the skale [scale] of proportion, was about three 
thousand miles, besides the Riuer we dwell vpon, where no 
Christian knowne euer was, and our diet for the most part 
what we could finde, yet but one died. 

The Saluages being acquainted, that by command from 
England we durst not hurt them, were much imboldned ; 
that famine and their insolencies did force me to breake 
our Commission and instructions, cause Powhatan fly his 
Countrey, and take the King of Pamavuke Prisoner ; and 
also to keepe the King of Paspahegh in shacfkels, and put 
his men to double taskes in chaines, till nine and thirty of 
their Kings paied vs contribution, and the offending Saluages 
[were] sent to Jatnes towne to punish at our owne discre- 
tions : in the two last yeares I staled there, I had not a man 
slaine. 

All those conclusions being not able to preuent the bad 
euents of pride and idlenesse, hauing receiued another 
supply of seuentie, we were about two hundred in all, but 
not twentie work-men : In following the strict directions 
from England to doe that was impossible at that time ; So 
it hapned, that neither wee nor they had any thing to eat, 
but what the Countrey afforded naturally ; yet of eightie 
who liued vpon Oysters in lune and luly, with a pint of 



No. 13] 



Virginia 



35 



corne a week for a man lying vnder trees, and 120 for the 
most part liuing vpon Sturgion, which was dried til we 
pounded it to powder for meale, yet in ten weeks but 
seuen died. 

It is true, we had of Tooles, Armes, & Munition sufficient, 
some Aquavitce, Vineger, Meale, Pease, and Otemeale, but 
in two yeares and a halfe not sufficient for six moneths, 
though by the bils of loading the proportions sent vs, would 
well haue contented vs, notwithstanding we sent home ample 
proofes of Pitch, Tar, Sope Ashes, Wainskot, Clapboord, 
Silke grasse, Iron Ore, some Sturgion and Glasse, Saxefras, 
Cedar, Cypris, and blacke Walnut, crowned Powhaton, 
sought the Monacans Countrey, according to the instruc- 
tions sent vs, but they caused vs [to] neglect more neces- 
sary workes : they had better haue giuen for Pitch and Sope 
ashes one hundred pound a tun in Deninarke : Wee also 
maintained fine or six seuerall Plantations. 

lames towne being burnt, wee rebuilt it and three Forts 
more, besides the Church and Store-house, we had about 
fortie or fiftie seuerall houses to keepe vs warme and dry, 
inuironed [environed] with a palizado of foureteene or fif- 
teene foot, and each [stake] as much as three or foure men 
could Carrie. We digged a faire Well of fresh water in the 
Fort, where wee had three Bulwarks, foure and twentie 
peece of Ordnance, of Culuering [culverin], Demiculuering, 
Sacar and Falcon, and most well mounted vpon conuenient 
plat-formes, [and we] planted one hundred acres of Corne. 
We had but six ships to transport and supply vs, and but 
two hundred seuenty seuen men, boies [boys], and women, 
by whose labours Virginia being brought to this kinde of 
perfection, the most difficulties past, and the foundation 
thus laid by this small meanes ; yet because we had done no 
more, they called in our Commission, tooke a new [one] in 
their owne names, and appointed vs neere as many offices 
and Officers as I had Souldiers, that neither knew vs nor 



Aquavitae = 
liquor. 



Wainscot = 
ceiling. 

Sassafras. 



At the head 
of the James 
River. 



The timely 
arrival of 
Newport 
greatly aided 
in this work. 



These are all 
species of 
cannon. 

Smith was 
justified in 
what he here 
says. The 
Company 
was looking 
out for the 
interests of 
its share- 
holders 
rather than 
for the good 
of the com- 
munity. 



36 



First Colonization 



[1607 



I.e. Virginia. 



wee them, without our consents or knowledge ; since there 
haue gone more then [than] one hundred ships of other 
proportions, and eight or ten thousand people. Now if you 
please to compare what hath beene spent, sent, discouered 
and done this fifteene yeares, by that we did in the three 
first yeares, and euery Gouernor that hath beene there since, 
giue you but such an account as this, you may easily finde 
what hath beene the cause of those disasters in Virginia. . . . 

In the yeare 1609 about Michaelmas, I left the Countrey, 
as is formerly related, [it being provided] with three ships, 
seuen Boats, Commodities to trade, haruest newly gathered, 
eight weeks prouision of Come and Meale, about fiue hun- 
dred persons, three hundred Muskets, shot, powder, and 
match, with armes for more men then [than] we had. The 
Saluages their language and habitation, well knowne to two 
hundred expert Souldiers ; Nets for fishing, tooles of all 
sorts, apparell to supply their wants : six Mares and a 
Horse, fiue or six hundred Swine, many more Powltry, 
which was brought or bred, but victuall there remained. 

. . . Thus these nineteene yeares I haue here and there 
not spared any thing according to my abilitie, nor the best 
aduice I could, to perswade how those strange miracles of 
misery might haue beene preuented, which lamentable ex- 
perience plainly taught me of necessity must insue, but few 
would beleeue [beheve] me till now too deerely [dearly] 
they haue paid for it. Wherefore hitherto I haue rather left 
all then [than] vndertake impossibilities, or any more such 
costly taskes at such chargeable rates : for in neither of 
= expensive. ^Yiose two Countries haue I one foot of Land, nor the very 
house I builded, nor the ground I digged with my owne 
hands, nor euer any content or satisfaction at all, and though 
I see ordinarily those two Countries shared before me by 
them that neither haue them nor knowes them, but by my 
descriptions : Yet that doth not so much trouble me, as to 
heare and see those contentions and diuisions which will 



Chargeable 



Virginia 
ami New 
England. 



No. 14] English Puritans 



37 



hazard if not ruine the prosperitie of Virginia, if present 
remedy bee not found, as they haue hindred many hun- 
dreds, who would haue beene there ere now, and makes 
them yet that are willing [to go] to stand in a demurre. 

Captain John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New- 
. England, and the Summer Isles (London, 1626), 162-164 
passifn. 



14. The King and the Puritans (1604) 



y. 



'HEN hee [Doctor Reynolds] desireth, that 
according to certaine Prouincial Constitu- 
tions, they of the Clergy might haue meetinges once euery 
three weekes ; first in Rurall Deanries, and therein to haue 
Vrophecying, according as the Reiierend Father, Archbishoppe 
Grindal, and other Bishops desired of her late Maiestie. 

2. that such things, as could not be resolued vpon, there, 
might bee referred to the Archdeacons Visitation: and so 

3. from thence to the Episcopall Synode, where the Bishoppe 
with his Presbyteri [presbytery], should determine all such 
pointes, as before could not be decided. 

At which speech, his Maiestie was somewhat stirred ; 
yet, which is admirable in him, without passion or shewe 
thereof.* thinking, that they aymed at a 'Scottish Presbytery, 
which saith hee, as well agreeth with a Monarchy, as God, 
and the Diuell [devil]. "Then lack and Tom, and Will, 
and Dick, shall meete, and at their pleasures censure me, 
and my Councell, and all our proceedings.- Then Will shall 
stand vp, and say, it must bee thus ; then Dick shall reply, 
and say, nay, ' mar[r]y, but wee will haue it thus. And 
therefore, here I must once reiterate my former speech, 
Le Roy s'auisera : Stay, I pray you, for one seauen [seven] 
yeares, before you demaunde that of mee : and if then, 5'ou 



No. 14 is 
by Doctor 
William 
Barlow 
(ti6i3), 
bishop of 
Rochester 
and Lincoln 
successively. 
He was a 
leading 
Church of 
England par- 
tisan in the 
conference of 
prelates and 
Puritan 
divines called 
by King 
James I, at 
Hampton 
Court, Jan- 
uary, 1604: 
His report, 
from which 
this extract 
is taken, is 
the chief 
authority on 
the subject. 
— For Puri- 
tan doctrine, 
see Contem- 
poraries, I, 
ch. xiv. 

Reynoldswas 
one of the 
four Puritan 
leaders who 
took part 
in the con- 
ference. 

" The king 
will think 
about it." ; 
this was the 



38 



First Colonization 



[1604 



regular form 
of veto. 

Prophecy- 
ings were 
exercises for 
interpreting 
and discuss- 
ing passages 
of Scripture. 

Visitations 
were annual 
tours of 
inspection. 

The presby- 
tery would be 
a council of 
the clergy, 
but really 
controlled by 
the bishop : 
this was the 
issue which 
the Puritans 
had raised, in 
order to get 
rid of the 
power of 
the bishops. 
King James 
was quick 
to see the 
point. 

The king, 
ever since 
the time of 
Henry the 
Eighth, had 
been titular 
head of the 
English 
Church. 

The con- 
cluding 
words made 
it evident 
that no 
toleration 
might be 
expected 
from James, 
but that after 
this it was 
only a ques- 



finde mee purseye [pursy] and fat, and my winde pipes 
stuffed, I will perhaps hearken to you : for let that goiiern- 
ilient bee once vp, I am sure, I shall bee kept in breath ; 
then shall wee all of vs, haue worke enough, both our hands 
full. But Doctor R<?ji7z. til you finde that I grow lazy, let 
that alone." 

And here, because D. R<?>'n. had twise before obtruded 
the Kings 'Sitipremacie, 1. In the Article, concerning the 
Pope ; 2. in the point of '$>ubscription, his Maiestie at those 
times saide nothing.- but now growing to an end, he saide, 
" I shall speake of one matter more ; yet, somewhat out of 
order, but it skilleth not. Doctor Rm^." quoth the K. 
" you haue often spoken for my '^iipremacie, and it is well : 
but knowe you any here, or any else where, who like of the 
present Gouerneine?it Y^cclesiasticall, that finde fault, or dis- 
like my ^upreniacie ?'' D. Kein. saide no . . . And then 
putting his hand to his hat, his J/aiestie saide ; " my Lordes 
the Bishops, I may thanke you, that these men doe thus 
pleade for my 'iupremacie ; They thinke they cannot make 
their party good against you, but by appealing vJtto it, as if 
you, or some that adhere vnto you, were not well affected 
towardes it. But if once you were out, and they in place, I 
knowe what would become of my Supremacie. No Bishop, 
no King, as before I sayd. Neither doe I thus speake, at 
random, without ground, for I haue obserued since my com- 
ming into England, that some Preachers before me, can 
be content to pray for lames, King of England, Scotland, 
Fraunce and Ireland, defendor of the faith, but as for 
Supreme Goiiernoiir in all causes, and ouer all persons, (as 
well Ecclesiasticall as Ciuil) they passe that ouer with 
silence ; & what cut they haue beene of, I after learned." 
After this asking them, if they had any more to obiect 
[object], and D. Reyn aunswering, Noe, his Maiestie ap- 
pointed the next Wednesday for both parties to meete 
before him, and rising from his Chaire, as hee was going to 



No. 15] 



Plymouth 



39 



his inner Chamber, " If this bee all," quoth he, "that they tion of time 

haue to say, I shall make the [them] conforme themselues, more irrecon- 

or I will harrie them out of the land, or else do worse." ciiabie Pun- 

' tans would 

William Barlow, The Svmme and Svbstance of the Conference \l^^^l^^^^^ 

. . . at Hampton Court, lanuary 14. i6oj (London, 1604), England. 
78-83 passim. 



15. Settlement of Plymouth (1620) 

AFTER some houres sailling, it begane to snow, 
& raine, & about y" midle of y* afternoone 
[Dec. 8, 1620], y*" wind Increased, & y'' sea became very 
rough ; and they broake their rudder, & it was as much as 
.2. men could doe to steere her with a cupple of oares. 
But their pillott bad[e] them be of good cheere for he saw y" 
harbor, but y*" storme Increasing, & night drawing on, they 
bore what saile they could to gett in, while they could see ; 
but herwith they broake their mast in .3. peeces & their 
saill fell ouer bo[a]rd, in a very grown sea, so as they had 
like to haue been cast away; yet by gods mercie they 
recouered them selues, & hauing y" fioud [flood-tide] with 
them struck into y'' harbore. But when it came too [to], 
y^ pillott was deceiued in y^ place, and said y^ Lord be 
mercifull vnto them, for his eys neuer saw y' [that] place 
before ; & he, & the m' [master] mate would haue rune her 
a shore, in a coue full of breakers before y*^ winde but a 
lusty seaman which steered, bad[e] those which rowed if 
they were men, about with her, or ells [else] they were all 
cast away ; the which they did with speed, so he bid them 
be of good cheere, & row lustly for ther was a faire sound 
before them, «& he doubted not, but they should find one 
place or other, wher they might ride in saftie. And though 
it was ve)y darke, and rained sore ; yet in y^ end they gott 
vnder y^ lee of a smalle Hand and remained ther all y' night 



By 

Governor 
William 
Bradford 
(1590-1657). 
member ot 
the Scrooby 
congrega- 
tion, silk- 
manufac- 
turer during 
the sojourn 
at Leyden, 
and later 
governor of 
Plymouth. 
His "His- 
tory " not 
only is the 
chief source 
on the early 
history of 
Plymouth, 
but deserv- 
edly ranks 
as a classic 
in historical 
literature. — 
For other 
extracts from 
Bratlford, see 
Old South 
Lcajlets, Nos. 
48,49; Amer- 
ican History 
Leajiets, No. 
29 ; Contem- 
poraries, I, 
Nos. 49, 
97-100, 117. 



40 



First Colonization 



[l62(. 



After the 
Mayflower 
had dropped 
anchor in 
Province- 
town harbor, 
this exploring 
party was 
sent out ; it 
coasted 
along the 
shore, and 
finally 
selected 
Plymouth as 
a site for a 
settlement. 
The island 
of refuge was 
Clark's 
Island. 



Observe 
that Mary 
Chilton was 
born on the 
Mayflower at 
Province- 
town, before 
the first land- 
ing at Ply- 
mouth. 



I.e. Plym- 
outh. 



in saftie. But they knew not this to be an Hand till morn- 
ing, but were deuided [divided] in their minds, some would 
keepe y'' boate for fear they might be amongst y"^ Indians ; 
others were so weake and could [cold], they could not en- 
dure, but got a shore, & with much adoe got fire (all things 
being so wett) and y*^ rest were gfad to come to them, for 
after midnight y* wind shifted to the north-west, & it frose 
hard. But though this had been a day, & night of much 
trouble, & danger vnto them ; yet god gaue them a morni7ig 
of comforte & refreshinge (as vsually he doth to his chil- 
dren) for y* next day was a faire sunshinlge day, and they 
found them sellues [selves] to be on an Hand secure from 
y*^ Indeans; wher they might drie their stufe [stuff], fixe 
their peeces, & rest them selues, and gaue god thanks for 
his mercies, in their manifould deliuerances. And this being 
the last day of y" zveeke, they prepared ther to keepe y* 
Sabath ; on viimday they sounded y'' harbor, and founde it 
fitt for shipping ; and marched into y*" land, & found diuerse 
cornfeilds, & litle runing brooks, a place [(]as they sup- 
posed) fitt for situation, at least it was y'' best they could 
find, and y^ season, & their presente necessitie made them 
glad to accepte of it. So they returned to their shipp againe 
with this news to y" rest of their people, which did much 
comforte their h[e]arts. 

On y* .Tf. of Desenf. they wayed [weighed] anchor to 
goe to y* place they had discouered, & came within .2. 
leagues of it, but were faine to bear vp againe, but y* .16. 
day y^ winde came faire, and they arriued safe in this har- 
bor. And after wards tooke better veiw of y^ place, and 
resolued wher to pitch their dwelling ; and y"" .2^. day be- 
gane to erecte y^ first house, for comone vse to receiue them, 
and their goods. . . . 

In these hard & difificulte beginings they found some dis- 
contents & murmurings arise amongst some, and mutinous 
speeches & carriag[e]s in other; but they were soone 



No. 15] 



Plymouth 



41 



the following 
April; he 
was suc- 
ceeded by 
Bradford. 



quelled, & ouercome, by y® wisdome, patience, and lust & John Carver, 
equall carr[i]age of things, by y'' Gou^ [Governor] and 
better part w'^'* claue [clave] faithfully togeather in y- maine. 
But that which was most sadd, & lamentable, was, that in 
.2. or .3. moneths time halfe of their company dyed, espe- 
tialy in Ian: & February, being y*^ depth of winter, and want- 
ing houses & other comforts ; being Infected with y^ Scuruie 
[scurvy] & and other diseases, which this longvioage [voyage] 
& their Inacomodate condition had brought vpon them ; so 
as ther dyed some times .2. or .3. of a day, in y*" foresaid 
time; that of .100. & odd persons scarce .50. remained: 
and of these in y*' time of most distres ther was but .6. or 
.7. sound persons; who to their great comendations, be it 
spoken, spared no pains, night nor day, but with abundance 
of toyle and hazard of their owne health, fetched them wood 
made them fires, drest them meat, made their beads, washed 
ther lothsome cloaths, cloathed & vncloathed them In a 
word did all y^ homly, & necessarie offices for them, w*"^ 
dainty & quesie stomacks cannot endure to hear named 
and all this wiUingly & cherfuUy, without any grudging In 
y^ least, shewing herein their true loue vnto their freinds 
& bretheren ; A rare example & worthy to be remembred. 
tow [two] of these .7. were M"" William Brewster ther reuer- 
end Elder, & Myles Standish their Captein & mihtary com- 
ander, (vnto whom my selfe, & many others were much 
beholden in our low, & sicke condition) . . . And what I 
haue said of these, I may say of many others who dyed in 
this generall vissitation & others yet lining ; that whilst they 
had health, yea or any strength continuing they were not 
wanting to any that had need of them ; And I doute [doubt] 
not but their recompence is with y*^ Lord. 



William Bradford, History of the Plimoth Plantation (facsimile 
from the original manuscript, with an introduction by John A. 
• Doyle, London and Boston, 1896), ^i~^z^ passim. 



42 



First Colonization [1615-1644 



Written in 
1646 by 
Father 
Isaac 

JOGUES 
{1607-1646), 

a French 
yesuit, and 
one of that 
band of 
earnest mis- 
sionary 
explorers to 
whose work 
the highest 
praise is due. 
He was the 
first Roman 
Cathohc 
priest m what 
is now the 
State of 
New York. — 
For Jogues, 
see Contem- 
poraries, I. 
No. 40. — On 
Dutch New 
York, see be- 
low, No. 32 ; 
Old South 
Leaflets, No. 
69 ; Contem- 
poraries I, 
ch. xxiii. — 
On Dutch re- 
lations with 
New Eng- 
land, see 
Contempora- 
ries, I Nos 
95,117, 170. 

North River 
= the Hud- 
son. 

Fort Amster- 
dam, later 
New York. 

The East 
River. 



16. Settlement of New Amsterdam 
(1615-1644) 

NEW HOLLAND, which the Dutch call in Latin Novum 
Belgium — in their own language, Nieitw Netherlaiid, 
that is to say, New Low Countries — is situated between 
Virginia and New England. The mouth of the river, which 
some people call Nassau, or the Great North River, to dis- 
tinguish it from another which they call the South River, and 
from some maps that I have recently seen I think Maurice 
River, is at 40 deg. 30 min. The channel is deep, fit for 
the largest ships, which ascend to Manhatte's Island, which 
is seven leagues in circuit, and on which there is a fort to 
serve as the commencement of a town to be built here, and 
to be called New Amsterdam. 

The fort, which is at the point of the island, about five or 
six leagues from the mouth, is called Fort Amsterdam ; it 
has four regular bastions mounted, with several pieces of 
artillery. . . . Within the fort there was a pretty large stone 
church, the house of the Governor, whom they call Director 
General, quite neatly built of brick, the storehouses and 
barracks. 

On the Island of Manhatte, and in its environs, there may 
well be four or five hundred men of different sects and 
nations : the Director General told me that there were men 
of eighteen different languages ; they are scattered here and 
there on the river, above and below, as the beauty and con- 
venience of the spot invited each to settle . . . 

The river, which is very straight, and runs due north and 
south, is at least a league broad before the fort. Ships lie 
at anchor in a bay which forms the other side of the island, 
and can be defended from the fort. . . . 

No religion is publicly exercised but the Calvinist, and 
orders are to admit none but Calvinists, but this is not 



No. i6] 



New Amsterdam 



43 



observed ; for there are in the Colony besides the Calvin- 
ists, Cathohcs, English Puritans, Lutherans, Anabaptists, here 
called Mnistes, &c., &c. When any one comes to settle in 
the country, they lend him horses, cows, &c. ; they give him 
provisions, all which he returns as soon as he is at ease ; 
and as to the land, after ten years he pays to the West India 
Company the tenth of the produce which he reaps. 

This country is bounded on the New England side by 
a river which they call the Fresche river, which serves as a 
boundary between them and the English. The English, 
however, come very near to them, choosing to hold lands 
under the Hollanders, who ask nothing, rather than depend 
on English Lords, who exact rents, and would fain be abso- 
lute. On the other side, southward, towards Virginia, its 
limits are the river which they call the South river, on 
which there is also a Dutch settlement, but the Swedes 
have one at its mouth extremely well supplied with cannons 
and men, . . . 

It is about forty years since the Hollanders came to these 
parts. The fort was begun in the year 1615 ; they began 
to settle about twenty years ago, and there is already some 
little commerce with Virginia and New England, 

The first comers found lands fit for use, formerly cleared 
by the savages, who had fields here. Those who came later 
have cleared the woods, which are mostly oak. The soil is 
good. Deer hunting is abundant in the fall. There are 
some houses built of stone : — lime they make of oyster 
shells, great heaps of which are found here, made formerly 
by the savages, who subsist in part by that fishery. 

The climate is very mild. Lying at 4o|° there are many 
European fruits, as apples, pears, cherries, I reached there 
in October, and found even then a considerable quantity of 
peaches. 

Ascending the river to the 43d degree, you meet the 
second Dutch settlement, which the tide reaches but does 



I.e. Mennon- 

ites, from 

their chief 

expounder, 

Simonis 

Menno 

(1492-1559), 



The Con- 
necticut. 



The Dela- 
ware. 

Fort Chris- 
tiana (Wil- 
mington), 



40° 42' 43" 
actually. 



44 



First Colonization [1615-1644 



Present site 
of Albany. 



The govern- 
ment of this 
colony was 
a relic of the 
mediaeval 
manorial 
system. 



not pass. Ships of a hundred and a hundred and twenty 
tons can come up to it. 

There are two things in this settlement (which is called 
Renselaerswick, as if to say, settlement of Renselaers, who 
is a rich Amsterdam merchant) — ist, a miserable little fort 
called Fort Orange, built of logs, with four or five pieces 
of Breteuil cannon, and as many swivels. This has been 
reserved, and is maintained by the West India Company. 
This fort was formerly on an island in the river ; it is now 
on the mainland, towards the Hiroquois [Iroquois], a little 
above the said island. 2d, a colony sent here by this Ren- 
selaers, who is the patron. — This colony is composed of 
about a hundred persons, who reside in some twenty-five or 
thirty houses built along the river, as each found most con- 
venient. In the principal house lives the patron's agent ; 
the Minister has his apart, in which service is performed. 
There is also a kind of Bailiff here, whom they call the 
Seneschal, who administers justice. Their houses are 
merely of boards and thatched, with no mason work ex- 
cept the chimneys. The forest furnishing many large 
pines, they make boards by means of their mills, which 
they have here for the purpose. 

They found some pieces of ground all ready, which the 
savages had formerly cleared, and ui which they sow wheat 
and oats for beer, and for their horses, of which they have 
great numbers. There is little land fit for tillage, being 
hemmed in by hills, which are poor soil. This obliges them 
to separate, and they already occupy two or three leagues 
of country. 

Trade is free to all ; this gives the Indians all things 
cheap, each of the Hollanders outbidding his neighbor, and 
being satisfied provided he can gain some little profit. 

The Jogties Papers; translated by Jolin Gilmary Slica, in New 
York Historical Society, Collections, Second Scries (New 
York, 1857), III, Part I, 2\z,-i\Z passim. 



No. 17] 



Massachusetts 



45 



17. 



Planting of Massachusetts (1627— 163 1) 



TOUCHING the plantacon which wee here haue begun, 
it fell out thus about the yeare 1627 some freinds 
beeing togeather in Lincolnesheire, fell into some discourse 
about New England and the plantinge of the gospell there ; 
and after some deliberation, we imparted our reasons by 
I'res [letters] & messages to some in London & the west 
country where it was likewise dehberately thought vppon 
[upon], and at length with often negociation soe ripened 
that in the year 1628. wee procured a patent from his Ma''® 
for our planting between the Matachusetts Bay, and Charles 
river on the South ; and the River of Merimack on the 
North and 3 miles on ether side of those Rivers & Bay, as 
allso for the government of those who did or should inhabit 
within that compass and the same year we sent Mr. John 
Endecott & some with him to beginne a plantacon & to 
strengthen such as he should find there which wee sent 
thether from Dorchester & some places adioyning [adjoin- 
ing] ; ffrom whom the same year receivinge hopefull news. 
The next year 1629 wee sent diverse shipps over w'"^ about 
300 people, and some Cowes, Goates & horses many of 
which arrived safely. Theis [these] by their too large 
comendacons [commendations] of the country, and the 
comodities thereof, invited us soe strongly to goe on that 
Mr. Wenthropp of Soffolke (who was well knowne in his 
owne country & well approved heere for his pyety, liberality, 
wisedome & gravity) comeinge in to us, wee came to such 
resolution that in April 1630, wee sett saile from Old Eng- 
land with 4 good shipps. And in May following 8 more 
followed, 2 haveing gone before in Ffebruary and March, and 
2 more following in June and August, besides another set 
out by a private merchant. Theis 1 7 Shipps arrived all safe 
in New England, for the increase of the plantacon here theis 



By 

Governor 
Thomas 
Dudley 
(1576-1652), 
soldier, stew- 
ard of^the 
Earl of Lei- 
cester, and 
governor of 
Massachu- 
setts : a good 
type of the 
extreme 
Puritan. He 
came over in 
Winthrop's 
company. 
The settle- 
ment of 
Massachu- 
setts is the 
best example 
in the period 
of intelligent 
colonization 
by a wealthy 
company. — 
See Contem- 
poraries, I, 
ch. xvi. 

Practically 
the present 
boundaries 
of Massa- 
chusetts. 

Endicott 
settled at 
Salem. 

John Win- 
throp. — See 
below, Nos. 
21, 28. 



46 



First Colonization [1627-1631 



I.e. to release 
them from re- 
paying their 
passage 
money by 
service. 



I.e. to Bos- 
ton Harbor. 



Medford, on 
tlie Mystic 
River. 



Named after 
the reigning 
king. 



yeare 1630 . . . Our 4 shipps which sett out in Aprill 
arrived here in June and July, where wee found the colony in 
a sadd and unexpected condicon aboue 80 of them beeing 
dead the winter before and many of those aliue weake and 
sicke : all the corne & bread amongst them all hardly sufifi- 
cient to feed them a fortnight, insoemuch that the remainder 
of 180 servents wee had the 2 years before sent over, come- 
inge to vs for victualls to sustaine them wee found ourselves 
wholly unable to feed them by reason that the p'visions 
[provisions] shipped for them were taken out of the shipp 
they were put in, and they who were trusted to shipp them 
in another failed us, and left them behind; whereupon 
necessity enforced us to our extreme loss to giue them all 
libertie ; who had cost us about : 16 or 20 J[^s [sterling] a 
person furnishing and sending over. But bearmg theis 
things as wee might, wee beganne to consult of the place of 
our sitting downe : ffor Salem where wee landed, pleased us 
not. And to that purpose some were sent to the Bay to 
search vpp the rivers for a convenient place ; who vppon 
their returne reported to haue found a good place vppon 
Mistick ; but some other of us seconding theis to approoue 
[approve] or dislike of their judgement ; we found a place 
[that] liked vs better 3 leagues vp Charles river — And 
there vppon vnshipped our goods into other vessels and 
with much cost and labour brought them in July to Charles 
Towne ; but there receiveing advertisements by some of the 
late arived shipps from London and Amsterdam of some 
Ffrench preparations against vs (many of our people brought 
with vs beeing sick of ffeavers [fevers] & the scurvy and 
wee thereby vnable to car[r]y vp our ordinance and baggage 
soe farr) wee were forced to change counsaile and for our 
present shelter to plant dispersedly, some at Charles Towne 
which standeth on the North Side of the mouth of Charles 
River ; some on the South Side thereof, which place we 
named Boston (as wee intended to haue done the place wee 



No. 17] 



Massachusetts 



47 



first resolved on) some of vs vppon Mistick, which wee 
named Meadford ; some of vs westwards on Charles river, 4 
miles from Charles Towne, which place wee named Water- 
toune ; others of vs 2 miles from Boston in a place wee 
named Rocksbury, others vppon the river of Sawgus be- 
tweene Salem and Charles Toune. And the westerne men 
4 miles South from Boston at a place wee named Dor- 
chester. This dispersion troubled some of vs, but helpe it 
wee could not, wanting abillity to remove to any place fit to 
build a Toune vppon, and the time too short to deliberate 
any longer least [lest] the winter should surprize vs before 
wee had builded our houses. ... of the people who came 
over with vs from the time of their setting saile from Eng- 
land in Aprill 1630. vntill December followinge there dyed 
by estimacon about 200 at the least — Soe lowe hath the 
Lord brought vs ! Well, yet they who survived were not 
discouraged but bearing God's corrections with humilitye 
and trusting in his mercies, and considering how after a 
greater ebb hee had raised vpp our neighbours at Plymouth 
we beganne againe in December to consult about a fitt place 
to build a Toune [town] vppon, leaveinge all thoughts of a 
fort, because vppon any invasion wee were necessarily 
to loose our howses when we should retire thereinto ; soe 
after diverse meetings at Boston, Rocksbury and Waterton 
on the 28th of December wee grew to this resolucon to 
bind all the Assistants (Mr. Endicott & Mr. Sharpe ex- 
cepted, which last purposeth to returne by the next shipps 
into England) to build howses at a place, a mile east from 
Waterton neere Charles river, the next Springe, and to 
winter there the next yeare, that soe by our examples and by 
removeinge the ordinance and munition thether, all who 
were able, might be drawne thether, and such as shall come 
to vs hereafter to their advantage bee compelled soe to doe ; 
and soe if God would, a fortifyed Toune might there grow 
vpp, the place fitting reasonably well thereto. . . . 



After a town 
in England, 
from which 
many of 
them had 
come. 

Roxburv. 



Most of them 
had come 
from Dor- 
chester, 
England. 



This place 
was New- 
town e, later 
called 
Cambridge 



48 



First Colonization 



[1632 



According to 
Winthrop 
and Brad- 
ford, the 
Puritans and 
Pilgrims 
came over 
to better their 
condition ; 
they might 
have had 
toleration in 
Holland. 



Other ac- 
counts of 
New Eng- 
land in Old 
South Leaf- 
lets, Nos. 7, 
8, 21, 22, 50- 
54. 67, 68 ; 
Am. Hist. 
Studies, 
No. 2. 



Written in 
1679 by 

jASl'AR 

"Dankers 
and Peter 

Sl.UYTER, 

who came 
over to find 



. . . But now haueing some leasure to discourse of the 
motiues for other mens comeinge to this place or their 
abstaining from it, after my breif manner I say this — That 
if any come hether [hither] to plant for worldly ends that 
canne live well at home hee co[m]mits an errour of which 
hee will soon repent him. But if for spirittuall [ends] and 
that noe particular obstacle hinder his removeall, he may 
finde here what may well content him : vizt : materialls to 
build, fewell [fuel] to burn, ground to plant, seas and rivers 
to fifish in, a pure ayer [air] to breath[e] in, good water to 
drinke till wine or beare canne be made, which togeather 
with the cowes, hoggs and goates brought hether allready 
may suffice for food, for as for foule [fowl] and venison, 
they are dainties here as well as in England. Ffor cloaths 
and beddinge they must bring them w'"^ them till time and 
industry produce them here. In a word, wee yett enioy 
[enjoy] little to bee envyed but endure much to be pittyed 
in the sicknes & mortalitye of our people. . . . 

The shipp now waites but for wind, which when it blowes 
there are ready to goe aboard therein for England . . . Mr. 
Coddington and many others, the most whereof purpose to 
returne to vs againe, if God will. In the meane time wee 
are left a people poore and contemptible yet such as trust 
in God, and are contented with our condition, beeinge well 
assured that hee will not faile vs nor forsake vs. 

Thomas Dudley, Letter to the Countess of Lincoln. Marcli. 1631 ; 
edited by J. Farmer, in Force, Tracts, etc. (Washington, 1838), 
II, No. iv, 7-18 passim. 



18. Conditions of Maryland (1632) 

AS regards its [Maryland's] first discoverer and pos- 
sessor, that was one Lord Baltimore, an English 
nobleman, in the time of Queen Maria. Having come from 



No. i8] 



Maryland 



49 



Newfoundland along the coast of North America, he arrived 
in the great bay of Virginia, up which he sailed to its upper- 
most parts, and found this fine country which he named 
Maryland after his queen. Returning to England he ob- 
tained a charter of the northerly parts of America, inexclu- 
sively, although the Hollanders had discovered and began 
to settle New Netherland. With this he came back to 
America and took possession of his Maryland, where at 
present his son, as governor, resides. 

Since the time of Queen Elizabeth, settlers have preferred 
the lowest parts of the great bay and the large rivers which 
empty into it, either on account of proximity to the sea, and 
the convenience of the streams, or because the uppermost 
country smacked somewhat of the one from whom it derived 
its name and of its government. . . . 

As to the present government of Maryland, it remains 
firm upon the old footing, and is confined within the limits 
before mentioned. All of Maryland that we have seen, is 
high land, with few or no meadows, but possessing such a 
rich and fertile soil, as persons living there assured me, that 
they had raised tobacco off the same piece of land for 
thirty consecutive years. The inhabitants who are generally 
English, are mostly engaged in this production. It is their 
chief staple, and the means with which they must purchase 
every thing they require, which is brought to them from 
other English possessions in Europe, Africa and America. 
There is, nevertheless, sometimes a great want of these 
necessaries, owing to the tobacco market being low, or the 
shipments being prevented by some change of affairs in some 
c^uarter, particularly in Europe, or to both causes, as was the 
case at this time, when a great scarcity of such articles ex- 
isted there, as we saw. So large a quantity of tobacco is 
raised in Maryland and Virginia, that it is one of the greatest 
sources of revenue to the crown by reason of the taxes which 
it yields. Servants and negroes are employed in the culture 



a site for a 
colony of the 
Labadist 
sect. Ban- 
kers was a 
Dutchman, 
wine-racker 
by trade; 
Sluyter later 
became 
bishop and 
director of 
a Labadist 
settlement in 
New York. — 
For the 
authors, see 
Conteinpora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
58, 146,172. — 
Maryland 
was the first 
of the pro- 
prietary colo- 
nies, given to 
an individual 
as a kind of 
great estate. 
— See Con- 
temporaries, 
I, ch. xi. 

Baltimore 
was not the 
first dis- 
coverer, 

Maria Anna 
was consort 
of Charles I. 

The " great 
bay " = 
Chesapeake. 

This practice 
was what 
ultimately 
exhausted 
the soil of 
Maryland 
and Virginia, 

See below. 
No. 43, and 
Contempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
83, 88, 



50 



First Colonization 



[1632 



of tobacco, who are brought from other places to be sold to 
the highest bidders, the servants for a term of years only, but 
the negroes forever, and may be sold by their masters to 
other planters as many times as their masters choose, that 
is, the servants until their term is fulfilled, and the negroes 
for life. These men, one with another, each make, when 
they are able to work, from 2,500 pounds to 3,000 pounds, 
and even 3,500 pounds of tobacco a year, and some of the 
masters and their wives who pass their lives here in wretched- 
ness, do the same. The servants and negroes after they 
have worn themselves down the whole day, and gone home 
to rest, have yet to grind and pound the grain, which is 
generally maize, for their masters and all their families as 
well as themselves, and all the negroes, to eat. Tobacco is 
the only production in which the planters employ themselves, 
as if there were nothing else in the world to plant but that, 
and while the land is capable of yielding all the productions 
that can be raised anywhere, so far as the climate of the 
place allows. As to articles of food, the only bread they 
have is that made of Turkish wheat or maize, and that is 
iniserable. . . . 

The lives of the planters in Maryland and Virginia are 
very godless and profane. They listen neither to God nor 
his commandments, and have neither church nor cloister. 
Sometimes there is some one who is called a minister, who 
does not as elsewhere, serv-e in one place, for in all Virginia 
and Maryland there is not a city or a village— -but travels 
for profit, and for that purpose visits the plantations through 
the country, and there addresses the people ; but I know 
of no public assemblages being held in these places ; you 
hear often that these ministers are worse than anybody else, 
yea, are an abomination. . . . 

It remains to be mentioned that those persons who pro- 
fess the Roman Catholic religion, have great, indeed, all 
freedom in Maryland, because the governor makes profession 



No. 19] 



Connecticut 



5^ 



of that faith, and consequently there are priests and other 1111649. The 
ecclesiastics who travel and disperse themselves everywhere, passage is^ 
and neglect nothing which serves for their profit and pur- still a moot 

rr., T 1 , • , 1 / point- For 

pose. . . . The Lord grant a happy issue there and here, the text, see 
as well as in other parts of the world, for the help of his Contempora- 
ovvn elect, and the glory of his name. No. 84. 

Jaspar Bankers and Peter Sluyter, Jourtial of a Voyage to New 
York . . . in ibyg-So ; translated by Henry C. Murphy, in 
Long Island Historical Society, Memoirs (Brooklyn, 1867), I, 
214-221 passim. 



19. 



Foundation of Government in Con- 
necticut (1638) 



rEXT : Deut. i. : 13. "Take you wise men, and 
understanding, and known among your tribes, and 
I will make them rulers over you." Captains over 
thousands, and captains over hundreds — over fifties — over 
tens, &c. 

Doctrifie. I. That the choice of public magistrates be- 
longs unto the people, by God's own allowance. 

IL The privilege of election, which belongs to the peo- 
ple, therefore must not be exercised according to their 
humours, but according to the blessed will and law of God. 

III. They who have power to appoint officers and mag- 
istrates, it is in their power, also, to set the bounds and 
limitations of th$ power and place unto which they call 
them. 

Reasons, i. Because the foundation of authority is laid, 
firstly, in the free consent of the people. 

2. Because, by a free choice, the hearts of the people 
will be more inchned to the love of the persons [chosen] 
and more ready to yield [obedience]. 



This is an 
abstract of a 
sermon by 
Reverend 
Thomas 
Hooker 
(1586-1647), 
made by 
Henry 

WOLCOTT, 
Jr., one of 
the original 
settlers of 
Windsor. 
Hooker was 
leader of the 
party which 
came from 
Cambridge, 
Massachu- 
setts, in 1636, 
to found 
Connecticut. 
The sermon 
probably in- 
spired the 
adoption of 
the Funda- 
mental Con- 
stitutions, 
described in 
Contempora- 
ries, I, 415. 
It is an 
excellent 
example of 



52 



First Colonization 



[1636 



the Puritan 
sermon. — 
See also 
Old South 
Leaflets, No. 
55-— For 
Connecticut, 
see Contem- 
poraries, I, 
ch. xviii. 

Hooker's 
doctrine 
probably 
came from 
John Calvin. 
— See Con- 
temporaries, 
I, Nos. 93,94. 

\ III is a 
statement 
of the power 
to make a 
constitution. 



3. Because, of that duty and engagement of the people. 

Uses. The lesson taught is threefold : — 

I St. There is matter of thankful acknowledgment, in the 
[appreciation] of God's faithfulness toward us, and the per- 
mission of these measures that God doth command and 
vouchsafe. 

2dly. Of reproof — to dash the conceits of all those that 
shall oppose it. 

3dly. Of exhortation — to persuade us, as God hath given 
us liberty, to take it. 

And lastly — as God hath spared our lives, and given us 
them in liberty, so to seek the guidance of God, and to 
choose in God and for God. 

Connecticut Historical Society, Collectiofis (Hartford, i860), I, 



By 

Secretary 
Nathaniel 
Morton 
(1613-1685), 
who was 
brought up 
in the family 
of Bradford, 
becoming 
later secre- 
tary of the 
court of 
Plymouth. 
His Neiv 
England's 
Alenwiial, 
published at 
the request of 
the commis- 
sioners of the 
four united 
colonies 
of New 
England, 
is an impor- 
tant author- 
ity for the 
early history 



20. Foundation of Rhode Island (1636) 

IN the year 1634. Mr. Roger Williams removed from 
Plimouih to Salem : he had lived about three years at 
Plimouth, where he was well accepted as an assistant in the 
Ministry to Mr. Ralph Smith, then Pastor of the Church 
there, but by degrees venting of divers of his own singular 
opinions, and seeking to impose them upon others, he not 
finding such a concurrence as he expected, he desired his dis- 
mission to the Church of Salem, which though some were un- 
willing to, yet through the prudent counsel of Mr. Brewster 
(the ruling Elder there) fearing that his continuance amongst 
them might cause divisions, and [thinking that] there being 
then many able men in the Bay, they would better deal 
with him then [than] themselves could . . . the Church 
of Plimouth consented to his dismission, and such as did 
adhere to him were also dismissed, and removed with him, 
or not long after him to Salem. . . . but he having in one 



No. 2o] Rhode Island 53 

years time, filled that place with principles of rigid separa- of Plymouth, 
tion, and tending to Anabaptistry, the prudent Magistrates ^ttiemem 
of the Massachusets Turisdiction, sent to the Church of of Rhode 

, rr ^ • ^ Island, see 

Salem, desiring them to forbear callmg him to office, which old South 
they not hearkening to, was a cause of much disturbance ; ^f'r^con^m- 
for Mr. Williams had begun, and then being in office, he poraries, i, 
proceeded more vigorously to vent many dangerous opin- poV Wii- 
ions, as amongst many others these were some : That it is ^]^™J'' ^^^ 

' o J ' Contempora- 

not lataful for an unregenerate maji to pray, nor to take an ries, I, 
Oath, and in special, not the Oath of Fidelity to the Civil °' ^^^' 
Government ; nor was it lawful for a godly man to have 
cominnnion either in Family Prayer, or iti an Oath with 
such as they fudged unregenerate : and therefore he himself 
refused the Oath of Fidelity, and taught others so to do : 
also, That it was not lawful so much as to hear the godly 
Ministers of England, 7vhen any occasionally taent thither ; 
& therefore he admonished any Church-me7nbers that had 
done so, as for hainous sin : also he spake dangerous words 
against the Patent, which was the foundation of the Govern- 
ment of the Massachusets Colony : also he affirmed, That 
the Magistrates had nothing to do in matters of the first 
Table [of the commandments], but only the secofid ; and 
that there should be a general and unlimited Toleration of 
all Religions, and for any man to be punished for any 
matters of his Conscience, was persecution. ... he not Williams 
only persisted, but grew more violent in his way, insomuch Vanished 
as he staying at home in his own house, sent a Letter, which so much for 
was delivered and read in the publick Church assembly, op^inions a" 
the scope of which was to give them notice, That if the [°'' *'?'^ *^'^' 

^ ° ' -^ that he was 

Church of Salem would not separate not only from the a disturber 
Churches of Old-England, btit the Churches of New-Eng- oith^peace. 
land too, he would separate from them : the more prudent 
and sober part of the Church being amazed at his way, 
could not yield unto him : whereupon he never came to the 
Church Assembly more, professing separation from them as 



54 



First Colonization 



[1636 



See note, 
p. 53 above. 



This princi- 
ple of com- 
plete tolera- 
tion was not 
adhered to 
by the colony 
in the later 
years of its 
history. 



Antichristian, and not only so, but he withdrew all private 
religious Communion from any that would hold Communion 
with the Church there, insomuch as he would not pray nor 
give thanks at meals with his own wife nor any of his family, 
because they went to the Church Assemblies . . . which 
the prudent Magistrates understanding, and seeing things 
grow more and more towards a general division and dis- 
turbance, after all other means used in vain, they passed 
a sentence of Banishment against him out of the Massachu- 
sets Colony, as against a disturber of the peace, both of the 
Church and Common-wealth. 

After which Mr. Williams sat down in a place called 
Providence, out of the Massachusets Jurisdiction, and was 
followed by many of the members of the Church of Salem, 
who did zealously adhere to him, and who cried out of the 
Persecution that was against him : some others also resorted 
to him from other parts. They had not been long there 
together, but from rigid separation they fell to Anabaptistry, 
renouncing the Baptism which they had received in their 
Infancy, and taking up another Baptism, and so began a 
Church in that way; but Mr. Williams stopped not there 
long, for after some time he told the people that had fol- 
lowed him, and joyned with him in a new Baptism, that he 
was out of the way himself, and had mis-led them, for he did 
notfitide that there 7vas any upon earth that could administer 
Baptism, and therefore their last Baptism was a nullity, as 
ivell as their first ; a?id therefore they must lay down all, and 
ivait for the coming of new Apostles : and so they dissolved 
themselves, and turned Seekers, keeping that one Principle, 
That every ofie should have liberty to Worship God accord- 
ing to the Light of their ow7i Consciences ; but otherwise not 
owning any Churches or Ordinances of God any where 
upon Earth. 

Nathaniel Morton, New-Englands Memorial (Camhndge, 1669), 
78-81 passim. 



No. 21] New Hampshire 5^ 

21. Foundation of New Hampshire 
(1637-1639) 



[March 9, 1637.] 



MR. WHEELWRIGHT, one of 
the members of Boston, preach- 
ing at the last fast, inveighed against all that walked in a 
covenant of works, as he described it to be, viz., such as 
maintain sanctification as an evidence of justification, etc. 
and called them antichrists, and stirred up the people 
against them with much bitterness and vehemency. For 
this he was called into the court, and his sermon being 
produced, he justified it, and confessed he did mean all that 
walk in such a way. Whereupon the elders of the rest of 
the churches were called, and asked whether they, in their 
ministry, did walk in such a way. They all acknowledged 
they did. So, after much debate, the court adjudged him 
guilty of sedition, and also of contempt, for that the court 
had appointed the fast as a means of reconcihation of the 
differences, etc., and he purposely set himself to kindle and 
increase them. The governour and some few more (who 
dissented) tendered a protestation, which, because it wholly 
justified Mr. Wheelwright, and condemned the proceedings 
of the court, was rejected. The church of Boston also ten- 
dered a petition in his behalf, justifying Mr. Wheelwright's 
sermon. The court deferred sentence till the next court, 
and advised with the ministers, etc., whether they might 
enjoin his silence, etc. They answered, that they were not 
clear in that point, but desired rather, that he might be 
commended to the church of Boston to take care of him, 
etc., which accordingly was done, and he enjoined to appear 
at the next court. Much heat of contention was [in] this 
court between the opposite parties . . . 

[Nov. I, 1637.] There was great hope that the late gen- 
eral assembly would have had some good effect in pacifying 



By Gov- 

ERNORjOHN 
WiNTHROP 
(1588-1649), 
lawyer, mag- 
istrate, 
landed pro- 
prietor, and 
first governor 
to exercise 
his functions 
in Massa- 
chusetts Bay. 
His journal 
is a most 
authentic 
record of the 
early history 
of the prov- 
vince. — For 
other extracts 
from Win- 
throp, see 
Old South 
Leaflets, 
Nos. 50, 66; 
Contempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
107, 118. — 
For New 
Hampshire, 
see Contem- 
poraries, I, 
ch. xix. 

John Wheel- 
wright (.1592- 
16.79), pastor 
of the church 
at Mount 
Wollaston 
(now Brain- 
tree),adopted 
the antino- 
mian heresy 
of his sister- 
in-law, Anne 
Hutchinson, 
and was ban- 
ished. — See 
Contempora- 
ries, I, No. 
108. 

The sermon 
was pub- 
lished in Jan- 
uary, 1637. 



56 



First Colonization [1637-1639 



"9th month,' 
Old Style, 
was Novem- 
ber. 



I.e. a formal 
record. 



An island in 
Narragansett 
Bay. 



Piscataqua, 
now Exeter. 



the troubles and dissensions about matters of religion ; but 
it fell out otherwise. For though Mr. Wheelwright and those 
of his party had been clearly confuted and confounded in 
the assembly, yet they persisted in their opinions, and were 
as busy in nourishing contentions (the principal of them) as 
before. Whereupon the general court, being assembled in 
the 2 [second] of the 9th month, and finding, upon consulta- 
tion, that two so opposite parties could not contain [con- 
tinue] in the same body, without apparent hazard of ruin to 
the whole, agreed to send away some of the principal . . . 
Then the court sent for Mr. Wheelwright, and, he per- 
sisting to justify his sermon, and his whole practice and 
opinions, and refusing to leave either the place or his pub- 
lic exercisings, he was disfranchised and banished. Upon 
which he appealed to the king, but neither called witnesses, 
nor desired any act to be made of it. The court told him, 
that an appeal did not lie ; for by the king's grant we had 
power to hear and determine without any reservation, etc. 
So he relinquished his appeal, and the court gave him leave 
to go to his house, upon his promise, that, if he were not 
gone out of our jurisdiction within fourteen days, he would 
render himself to one of the magistrates. . . . 

[Dec. 13, 1638.] Those who were gone with Mrs. Hutch- 
inson to Aquiday fell into new errors daily. One Nicholas 
Easton, a tanner, taught, that gifts and graces were that 
antichrist mentioned [in] Thess[alonians], and that which 
withheld, etc, was the preaching of the law ; and that every 
[one] of the elect had the Holy Ghost and also the devil 
indwelling. Another, one Heme, taught, that women had 
no souls, and that Adam was not created in true holiness, 
etc., for then he could not have lost it. 

Those who went to the falls at Pascataquack, gathered a 
church, and wrote to our church to desire us to dismiss Mr. 
Wheelwright to them for an ofificer ; but, because he desired 
it not himself, the elders did not propound it. Soon after 



No. 21] New Hampshire 57 

came his own letter, with theirs, for his dismission, which 
thereupon was granted. Others likewise (upon their re- 
quest) were also dismissed thither. . . . 

[March, 1639.] Another plantation was begun upon the 
north side of Merrimack, called Sarisbury, now Colchester ; 
another at Winicowett, called Hampton, which gave occa- 
sion of some difference between us and some of Pascata- 
quack, which grew thus : Mr. Wheelwright, being banished 
from us, gathered a company and sat down by the falls of 
Pascataquack, and called their town Exeter ; and for their 
enlargement they dealt with an Indian there, and bought 
of him Winicowett, etc., and then wrote to us what they 
had done, and that they intended to lot out all these lands 
in farms, except we could show a better title. They wrote 
also to those whom we had sent to plant Winicowett to have 
them desist, etc. These letters coming to the general court, 
they returned answer, that they looked at this their deal- 
ing as against good neighborhood, religion, and common 
honesty; that, knowing we claimed Winicowett as within 
our patent, or as vacuum domicilium, and had taken posses- " No man's 
sion thereof by building an house there above two years ^" ' 
since, they should now go and purchase an unknown title, 
and then come to inquire of our right. It was in the same 
letter also manifestly proved, that the Indians having only Having, i.e. 
a natural right to so much land as they had or could ^ ' 
improve, so as the rest of the country lay open to any that 
could and would improve it, as by the said letter more at 
large doth appear. 

John Winthrop. The History of New England from 1630 to ib4g 
(edited by James Savage, Boston, 1853), I, 2s^6-t,4.() passim. 



CHAPTER IV — SECOND ERA OF 
COLONIZATION • 



By Gov- 
ernor Sir 
Edmund 

ANDROS 

(1637-1714), 
soldier, and 
governor of 
New York, 
New Eng- 
land, and 
Virginia 
successively ; 
arbitrary in 
method, but 
an able ad- 
ministrator. 
This account 
is from an 
official report 
in answer to 
inquiries 
from the 
English gov- 
ernment. — 
For Andros 
in New Eng- 
land, see 
Contempo- 
raries, I, 
No. 136. — 
New York is 
an example 
of the prov- 
ince, or un- 
chartered 
colony. The 
first House 
of Represent- 
atives was 
held under 
Governor 
Dongan in 
1683. — For 
New York, 
see Content- 



22. An Account of New York (1678) 

ANSWERS to the Inquiries of Plantacons for New 
Yorke. 

1. The Governo'' is to have a Councell not exceeding 
tenn, w"' whose advice to act for the saf[e]ty & good of the 
country, & in every towne, Village or parish a Petty Court, 
& Courts of Sessions in the severall precincts being three, 
on Long Island, & Townes of New Yorke, Albany & Esopus, 
& some smale or poore Islands & out places ; And the Gen- 
erall Court of Assizes composed of the Governo'' & Councell 
«& all the Justices & Magistrates att New Yorke once a yeare, 
the Petty Courts Judge of fiue pounds, & then may appeale 
to Sessions, they to twenty pounds & then may appeale to 
Assizes to y^ King, all s* [said] courts as by Law. 

2. The Court of Admiralty hath been by speciall Comis- 
sion or by the Court of Mayor & Aldermen att New Yorke. 

3. The cheife Legislatiue power there is in the Governo"" 
with advice of the Councell the executive power of Judgem" 
giuen by y^ Courts is in the sheriffs & other civill officers. 

4. The law booke in force was made by the Governo'' & 
Assembly att Hempsted in 1665 and since confirmed by his 
Royall Highnesse. 

5. The Militia is about 2000 of w"'' about 140 horse in 
three troopes the foote formed into companyes most under 
100 men each all indifferently armed with fire armes of all 
sizes, ordered & exercised according to Law, and are good 
fire men ; one standing company of Souldiers with gunners 

58 



No. 22] 



New York 



59 



& other officers for the fiforts of New Yorke & Albany alwayes 
victualled in October & November for a yeare. 

6. Forteresses are James fforte seated upon a point of 
New Yorke towne between Hudson's River & y* Sound, its 
a square with stone walls, foure bastions almost regular, and 
in it 46 gunns mounted & stores for seruice accordingly. 
Albany is a smale long stockadoed forte with foure bastions 
in it, 12 gunns sufficient ag' [against] Indians, & lately a 
wooden redou[b]t & out worke att Pemaquid w'*' seven 
gunns, s** Garrisons victualled for a yeare, w* suiif' [suffi- 
cient] stores. 

7. There are noe privateers about o"' [our] Coasts. 

8. Our Neighbours westward are Maryland populous & 
strong but doe not live in townes, their produce tobacco, 
Northwest the Maques [Mohawks] &" Indians y^ most warr 
like in all the Northern Parts of America, their trade beavers 
& furrs. Northward the ffrench of Canada trade as wee with 
our Indians ; Eastward Connecticutt in a good condicon & 
populous, their produce provisioun of wheate, beefe & porke, 
some pease, o"" South bounds the Sea, 

9. Wee keepe good Correspondence with all o'' neigh- 
bours as to Civill, legall or Judiciall proceedings, but differ 
with Connecticutt for our bounds and mutuall assistance w''*' 
they nor Massachusetts will not admitt 

10. Our boundarys are South, the Sea, west[,] Delaware ; 
North to y" Lakes or ffrench ; East[,] Connecticutt River, but 
most usurped & yett possed [possessed] by s** Connecticutt, 
some Islands Eastward & a tract beyond Kennebeck River 
called Pemaquid &'^ New Yorke is in 40"^ 35™ Albany ab' 
[about] 43*^ the Collony is in severall long narrow stripes of 
w*^^ a greate parte of the Settlem' [was] made by adventurers 
before any Regulac6n[,] by [reason of] w''^[,] Incroachm'' 
[have been made] without pattents w'^^ \^i.e. the patents] 
townes haue lately taken[;] but by reason of Continuall 
warrs noe Survey [has been] made Si [it is still] wilder- 



poraries, I, 
ch. xxiii ; 
II, ch. iv. 

" Law- 
booke " = 
so-called 
"' Duke's 
Laws." 

Fort Jam es= 
the Battery. 

Pemaquid = 
Maine. 



I.e. there 
were boun- 
dary con- 
troversies. 



New York, 
40° 42' 43" 

Albany, 
42° 39' 3"- 



6o 



Second Colonization 



[167S 



I.e. South- 
ampton, L. 



•Duffells" 
coarse 
woolen 
cloths. 

/;50,ooo. — 
See above, 
p. 27, note. 



nesse,[ ; ] noe certaine Computacon can be made of the 
planted & unplanted, these last 2 yeares about 20000 acres 
[have been] taken up & pattented for particular persons 
besides Delaware, most of the land taken up except upon 
Long Island is improued & unlesse the bounds of the Duke's 
pattent be asserted noe great quantityes att hand undisposed. 

11. Our principall places of Trade are New Yorke & 
Southton except Albany for the Indyans, our buildings most 
wood, some lately stone & brick, good country houses & 
strong of their severall kindes. 

12. Wee haue about 24 townes, villiages or parishes in 
Six Precincts, Divisions, Rydeings [districts], or Courts of 
Sessions. 

13. Wee haue severall Riuers, Harbours & Roades. 
Hudson's River the cheifest & is ab' 4 fathoms water att 
comeing in[,] butt six, tenn or more within[,] iSc very good 
soundings and anchorage either in Hudson's River or in the 
Sound, the usuall roade before the towne & moulde [mole]. 

14. Our produce is land provisions of all sorts as of 
wheate [of which is] exported yearly about 60000 bushells, 
pease, beefe, porke, & some Refuse fish, Tobacco, beavers, 
peltry or furrs from the Indians, Deale & oake timber, 
plankes, pipestaues [pipe-staves], lumber horses, & pitch & 
tarr lately begunn to be made ; comodityes imported are all 
Sorts of English mannufacture for Christians & blancketts 
Duffells &" for Indians about 50,000'' yearly[.] Pemaquid 
affords merchantable fifish & masts. 

15. Wee haue noe Experience or skill of Salt Peter to be 
had in Quantityes. 

16. Our Merch'' [merchants] are not many but with 
inhabitants & planters about 2000 able to beare amies old 
inhabitants of the place or of England, Except in & neere 
New Yorke of Dutch extraction & some few of all nations, 
but few serv'' [who are] much wanted & but very few slaves. 

17. Noe persons whateuer are to come from anyplace 



1^0.22] New York 6i 

but according to Act off Pari' [Parliament] w'^'' the Magis- 
trates & Officers of y" severall townes or places are to take 
care of, accordingly the Plantacon is these late yeares in- 
creased, butt noe Generall ace' hath been taken soe [it] is 
not knowne how much nor what persons. Some few slaues 
are sometimes brought from Barbados, most for provisions 
& Sould [sold] att ab' 30'' or 35'' Country pay. _^3o or ^35 

18. Ministers haue been so scarce & Religions many that '"P^° '^'^'^• 
noe ace' cann be giuen of Childrens births or Christenings. 

19. Scarcity of Ministers & Law admitting marriages by 
Justices no ace' cann be giuen of the number marryed. 

20. Noe ace' cann be giuen of burialls formes of burialls 
not being generally obserued & few ministers 'till very lately. 

21. A merch' worth 1000" or 500" is accompted a good 
substantial! merchant & a planter worthe halfe that in move- 
ables accompted with [rich?] All the Estates may bee 
valued att about ;^i 50000. 

22. There may lately haue traded to y^ CoUony in a yeare 
from tenn to fifteen shipps or vessells of about togeather 100 
tunns each, English, new England & our owne built of w"' 

[which] 5 smale shipps and a Ketch now belonging to New a small two- 
Yorke foure of them built there. "^^^^^^"^ 

23. Obstruccons to Improuem' [improvement] of plant- 
ers, trade, Navigacon, & mutual assistance are y*^ distinction 
of CoUonies for our owne produce, as if [they were] differ- 
ent nations & people, though next neighbours on the same 
tract of land, & His Ma''*"' subjects, wee obseruing [observ- 
ing] acts of trade & navigacon &" 

24. Advantages, Incouragem' & Improuem' of Planters 
trade & Navigacon would be more if next neighbours of 
o*" owne nation the King's subjects upon the same tract 
of land might without distinction, supply each other with 
our owne produce, punctually obserueing all acts of Parliam' 
for Exportacon & would dispose all persons the better for 
mutuall assistance. 



62 



Second Colonization [1675 



In 1693 the 
Church of 
England was 
established 
in three 
counties. 



25. Rates or Dutyes upon Goods exported are 2' for 
each hhd of Tobacco & i' 3*^ on a beauer skin & other pel- 
try proportionably, Provisions & all else paye nothing, Goods 
imported payes 2 per cent except Liquors particularly rated 
something more, & Indian trade goeing up the river payes 
3 per cent, there are some few quitt rents, as also Excise 
or license mon[e]ys for retaileing strong drinke & a way 
[weigh] house or publique scale ; all applyed to y^ Garrison 
& publique charge, to which it hath not heitherto sufficed 
by a greate deale. 

26. There are Religions of all sorts, one Church of Eng- 
land, severall Presbiterians & Independants, Quakers & Ana- 
baptists, of severall sects, some Jews, but presbiterians & 
Indipend'' most numerous & substantiall. 

27. The Duke maintaines a chapline [chaplain] w*"*^ is all 
the certaine allowance or [of the] Chirch of England, but 
peoples free gifts to y® ministry, And all places oblidged to 
build churches & provide for a minister, in w'''^ most very 
wanting, but presbiterians & Independents desierous to 
haue & maintaine them if to be had. There are ab' 20 
churches or Meeting places of w'^'' aboue [above] halfe [are] 
vacant . . . 

E. B. O'Callaghan, Doaimetiis relative to the Colonial History 
of the State of New- York (Albany, 1853), III, 260-262. 



By John 

Fenwick 
(I6I8-I683), 

a Quaker 
proprietor of 
West Jersey, 
named from 
the island of 
Jersey. 
"He founded 
a Quaker 
colony in 
Salem in 



23. New Jersey "a Healthy Pleasant, and 
Plentiful Country" (1675) 

FRIENDS, 

rHESE are to Satisfe you, or any other who are Sober, 
and are any wise minded to go along with me, and 
Plant within my COLONY; That 7ve shall no doubt 
find, but that New CESEREA or New JERSEY, which is 



No. 23] 



New Jersey 



63 



the Place which I did Purchase : Together with the Govern- 
jnent thereof, is a Healthy Pleasant, and Plentiful Country : 
According to the Report of many Honest Men, Friends, and 
other's who has bee?i there, aiid the Character given thereof, 
by John Ogilby in his AMERICA, which I herewith send. 
The Method I inteiid for the Planting of all, or so much 
thereof, as I shall reserve to myself, my Heirs and Assigns 
for ever. Is thus : 



w 



Hoever is minded to Purchase to them and 
their Heirs for ever, may for Five Pound 
have a Thousand Acres, and so Ten Thousand Acres ; and 
thereby be made Propriators or Free-Holders. 

2. Who is minded to Carry themselves, (and not Pur- 
chase) with their Families at their own Charges, are to have 
the Freedom of the Country when they Arrive, and one 
hundred Acres for every Head they carry above the Age of 
Fourteen, to them and their Heirs for ever. At the yearly 
Rent of a Pen[n]y for every Acre, to Me, my Heirs and 
Assigns for ever. 

3. [Those] Who are minded to go as Servants, who must 
be Carried at my Charges, or [at the charges of] any other 
Propriator, or Purchasors, or [of other persons who] Carries 
themselves with Servants at their own Charges as aforesaid ; 
they [the servants] are to Serve 4 years, and then to be 
made Free of the Country : Their Masters are to give them 
a Suit of Cloaths, and other things su[i] table; a Cow, a 
Hog, and so much Wheat as the Law there in that Case 
allows ; with Working Tools to begin with : And then he is 
to have of me, or [of] his Master out of his Propriety 
[property], a hundred Acres, Paying the yearly Rent of a 
Peny for every Acre : To me and my Heirs for ever, or to 
his Master and his Heirs. 

And as for the Planting of the Whole, with Ease, Satis- 
faction and Profit, as well to the Poor as the Rich : this 



1675. Gov- 
ernor Andros 
disputed his 
title and im- 
prisoned 
him for two 
years ; Fen- 
wick then 
made over 
his claim to 
William 
Penn. The 
following 
extract is 
from the first 
printed paper 
relative to 
West Jersey, 
after the 
country came 
into the pos- 
session of 
Fenwick 
and his part- 
ner Billynge. 
East and 
West Jersey, 
were united 
in 1702. — ■ 
See Contem- 
poraries, I, 
ch. XXV ; II, 
ch. iv. 

Ogilby 's 
America, a 
huge folio, 
published in 
1671. 

Freedom = 
citizenship. 



64 



Second Colonization [1675 



Method is intended, and approved of by many that are 
preparing to go with me, which I intend will be about the 
middle of the next Month call'd April, or the end thereof 
without fail, if the Lord please. 

First, 1 0000. Acres being pitch'd Upon, and divide'd 

/.^. individual according to every mans Propriety; then Lots shall be 
'"^" cast, and when every one knows where his Lot lies, there 

being also a place Chosen and set out for a Town or City 
to be Built, in which every Purchaser must have a Part, by 
reason of Delaware River for Trade. Then every one must 
joyn their Hands, first in Building the Houses, and next in 
Improving the Land, casting Lots whose Houses shall be 
first built, and whose Land first Improved : And as the 
Land is Improved so it shall be for the Use of all the 
Hands and their Families which are joyned in this Com- 
munity, until the whole loooo. Acres be Improved; Then 
every one to have his own Lot to his own Use : And so this 
Method to be used till the Country be Planted. 

If any like not this Method, they may be left to Improve 
their Propriety alone. If any happen to go who is not Able 
to get a Live [li] hood here, nor to Pay their Debts out of 
their Stocks, the Governor and his Council shall take care, 
upon notice given thereof by the Creditors, that such shall 
make Satisfaction out of their Estates, as the Lord shall 
give a Blessing to their Labours, and an Increase of their 
Substance. Provided the Creditors hinder not their Pas- 
sage, but give the Governor and his Council a Particular of 
their Debts. 

The Government is to be, by a Governor and 1 2 Council 

i.e. a term of to be Chosen every year, 6 of the Council to go out, and 6 
years. ^^ come in ; whereby every Proprietor may be made capa- 
ble of Government, and know the Affairs of the Country, 
and Privileges of the People. 

The Government to stand upon these two Basis, or 
Leges [laws], viz. i. The Defence of the Royal Law of 



No. 24] 



Carolina 



65 



God, his Name and true Worship, which is in Spirit and 
in Truth. 

2. The Good, Peace and Welfare, of every Individual 
Person. 

This 2>th. of the ist. Month. I am a Real Friend March 8, 

1675. and Well-wisher ^^75. 0.S. 

to all Men. 

J. Fenwick. 

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadel- 
phia, 1882), VI, 86-88. 



24. Description of Carolina (i 665-1 695) 

I SHALL next proceed to treat of the Government, as 
granted by King Charles IL to the Eight Lords Pro- 
prietors aforesaid, who again, by common consent, center'd 
that Power in Four of them, viz. in a Palatine of their own 
election, and Three more who were impower'd to execute 
the whole Powers of the Charter, and is call'd a Palatines 
Court; their Deputies in Carolina executing the same, as 
from their Principals they are directed : For each Proprietor 
hath his Deputy there. The Charter generally, as in other 
Charters, agrees in Royal Privileges and Powers ; but espec- 
ially at that time it had an Over-plus Power to grant Liberty 
of Conscience, altho' at Home was a hot Persecuting Time ; 
as also, a Power to Create a Nobility, yet not to have the 
same Titles as here in England, and therefore they are there 
by Patent, under the Great Seal of the Provinces, call'd 
Landgraves and Cassocks, in lieu of Earls and Lords ; and 
are by their Titles to sit with the Lords Proprietors, Depu- 
ties, and together make the Upper-House, the Lower-House 
being elected by the People ; and these Landgraves are to 
have four Baronies annex'd to their Dignities, of 6000 Acres 
each Barony ; and the Cassocks two Baronies, of 3000 each ; 



By John 
Archdale, 

a Quaker, 
governor of 
the Carolinas 
from 1695 to 
1697 ; a care- 
ful adminis- 
trator, who 
did much for 
the internal 
improvement 
of the colony. 
The North- 
ern and 
Southern 
colonies were 
at one time 
governed 
together 
under royal 
charters of 
1663 and 
1665 ; they 
are an exam- 
ple of an 
unsuccessful 
attempt to 
found an 
artificial 
common- 
wealth, with 
feudal privi- 
leges. — See 
Contempora- 
ries, I, ch. 
xii; II, ch. v. 



66 



Second Colonization [1665-1695 



Liberty of 
conscience 
was remarka- 
ble, consider- 
ing that all 
the propiie- 
tors were 
Church of 
England 
men. 



The war 
against the 
Kussoes, in 
1671. 



and not to be separated away by Sale of any part ; only they 
have power to let out a third Part for three Lives, for to 
raise Portions for younger Children. And many Dissenters 
went over, Men of Estates, as also many whom the variety 
of Fortune had engaged to seek their Fortunes, in hopes 
of better Success in this New World : And truly such as 
better improved their new Stock of Wit, generally had no 
cause to repent of their Transplantation into this Fertile and 
Pleasant Land : Yet had they at the first many Difficulties 
and Dangers to cope withal, and therefore the most desper- 
ate Fortunes [fortune-hunters] first ventured over to break 
the Ice, which being [were] generally the Ill-livers of the 
pretended Church-men, altho' the Proprietors commission- 
ated one CoUonel IVesf their Governour, a moderate, just, 
pious and valiant Person ; yet having a Council of the loose 
Principled Men, they grew very unruly, that they had like 
to have Ruin'd the Colony, by Abusing the Indians, whom 
in Prudence they ought to have obliged in the highest de- 
gree, and so brought an Indian War on the Country, like 
that in the first Planting of Virginia, in which several were 
cut off; but the Governour by his Manly Prudence, at last, 
extinguish'd the same in a great measure, and so left Matters 
a little better settled to Governour Jos. Morton, in whose 
time General Biake's Brother, with many Dissenters came 
to Carolina ; which Blake being a wise and prudent Per- 
son, of an heroick temper of Spirit, strengthen'd the Hands 
of sober inclined People, and kept under the the First Loose 
and Extravagant Spirit ; but not being able to extinguish it, 
it broke out and got head in the Government of James 
Coletin of Barbadoes, and Sir Peter Colleton's Brother : And 
this Party grew so strong among the Common People, that 
they chose Members to oppose whatsoever the Governour 
requested ; insomuch that they would not Settle the Militia 
Act, tho' their own Security (in a Natural way) depended on 
it. And the grounds of their farther Strength, was by reason 



No. 25] 



Pennsylvania 



67 



of the Discontent the People lay under about the Tenure 
of their Lands, and payment of their Quiterance [quit-rents] 
which was afterwards rectified by me. After Colleton suc- 
ceeded one [Thomas] Smyth, a wise and sober, moder- 
ate and well-living Man, who grew so uneasy in the Govern- 
ment, by reason that he could not satisfy the People in their 
Demands, that he writ over An. 1694, "That it was impos- 
sible to Settle the Country, except a Proprietor himself, was 
sent over with full power to Heal their Grievances, &=€ ". . . 
the Proprietors took Governour Smyth's Letter under Con- 
sideration ; and the Lord Ashly was pitch'd upon by all the 
Lords, who was then in the Country . . . who desired to be 
excused . . . upon which Account I was then pitch'd upon, 
and intrusted with Large and Ample Powers ; and when I 
arriv'd, I found all Matters in great Confusion, and every 
Faction apply 'd themselves to me in hopes of Relief; I ap- 
peased them with kind and gentle Words, and so soon as 
possible call'd an Assembly . . . 

John Archdale, A New Description of that Fertile and Pleasant 
Province of Carolina (London, 1707), 12-1^ passim. 



25. Settlement of Pennsylvania (1682) 

AT our arrival [in Pennsylvania], we found it a wilder- 
ness ; the chief inhabitants were Indians, and some 
Swedes ; who received us in a friendly manner : and though 
there was a great number of us, the good hand of Provi- 
dence was seen in a particular manner ; in that provisions 
were found for us, by the Sivedes, and Indians, at very rea- 
sonable rates, as well as brought from divers other parts, 
that were inhabited before. 

Our first concern was to keep up and maintain our reli- 
gious worship ; and, in order thereunto, we had several meet- 



I.e. perpetual 
rents re- 
served in 
grants of 
land ; a sys- 
tem much 
disliked by 
the colonists. 

"An." = 
Anno, year. 



No. 25 is 
by Richard 

TOWNSEND 
(born about 
1644) , a 
Quaker, who 
came from 
England in 
the ship 
" Welcome " 
with William 
Penn. — For 
Townsend, 
see H. G. 
Ashmead, 
Historical 
Sketch of 
Chester, 230- 
231. — For 
Quakers, see 
below. No. 
30 ; Contem- 
poraries, I, 
Nos. 141, 142, 
— The early 
settlers, when 
they had 
reached old 



68 



Second Colonization [1682 



age, are said 
to have fre- 
quently re- 
called the 
goodness of 
Providence 
in preserving 
them through 
the difficul- 
ties and hard- 
ships which 
they at first 
encountered. 
Townsend's 
" testimony," 
written about 
1727, is an 
example of a 
favorite kind 
of Quaker 
reminis- 
cence. — 
Pennsylvania 
is a type of 
a colony 
founded on 
a large scale 
by a man of 
great wealth 
and vigorous 
character. — 
See Contem- 
poraries, I, 
oh. XXIV ; II, 
eh. iv. 

The Swedes 
were the 
original set- 
tlers of Dela- 
ware, which 
for a long 
time formed 
a part of 
Pennsyl- 
vania. 

For William 
Penn see 
Contempora- 
ries, I, No. 
162. 

I.e. the 
Welsh. 



ings, in the houses of the inhabitants ; and one boarded 
meeting-house was set up, where the city was to be, near 
Delaware ; and, as we had nothing but love and good-will, 
in our hearts, one to another, we had very comfortable 
meetings, from time to time ; and after our meeting was 
over, we assisted each other, in building little houses, for 
our shelter. 

After some time I set up a mill, on Chester creek ; which 
I brought ready framed from London; which served for 
grinding of corn, and sawing of boards ; and was of great 
use to us. Besides, I, with Joshua Tittery, made a net, and 
caught great quantities of fish ; which supplied ourselves 
and many others ; so that, notwithstanding it was thought 
near three thousand persons came in the first year, we were 
so providentially provided for, that we could buy a deer for 
about two shillings, and a large turkey, for about one shil- 
ling, and Indian corn for about two shillings and six pence 
per bushel. 

And, as our worthy Proprietor treated the Indians with ex- 
traordinary humanity, they became very civil and loving to 
us, and brought in abundance of venison. As, in other coun- 
tries, the Indians were exasperated by hard treatment, which 
hath been the foundation of much bloodshed, so the con- 
trary treatment here hath produced their love and affection. 

About a year after our arrival, there came in about twenty 
families from high and low Germany, of religious, good 
people ; who settled about six miles from Philadelphia, and 
called the place Germantown. — The country continually 
increasing, people began to spread themselves further 
back. — 

Also a place called North Wales, was settled by many of 
the ancietit Britons, an honest inclined people, although 
they had not then made a profession of the truth, as held 
by us, yet, in a little time, a large convincement was among 
them ; and divers meeting-houses were built. 



No. 26] 



Del 



aware 



69 



About the time, in which Germantown was laid out, I 
settled upon my tract of land, which I had purchased of the 
Proprietor, in England, about a mile from thence ; where I 
set up a house and a corn mill ; — which was very useful to 
the country, for several miles round : — But there not being 
plenty of horses, people generally brought their corn on 
their backs many miles . . . 

As people began to spread, and improve their lands, the 
country became more fruitful; so that those, who came 
after us, were plentifully supplied ; and with what we 
abounded we began a small trade abroad. And as Phila- 
delphia increased, vessels were built, and many employed. 
Both country and trade have been wonderfully increasing to 
this day ; so that, from a wilderness, the Lord, by his good 
hand of providence, hath made it a fruitful field : — On 
which to look back, and observe all the steps, would exceed 
my present purpose ; yet, being now in the eighty-fourth 
year of my age, and having been in this country near forty- 
six years, and my memory pretty clear, concerning the rise 
and progress of the province, I can do no less than return 
praises to the Almighty, when I look back and consider his 
bountiful hand . . . 

Robert Proud, The History of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 
1797), I, 229-231 passim. 



26. A Journey through Delaware (1676) 

WE travelled that Day, and saw no tame Creature, at 
Night we kindled a Fire in the Wilderness, and lay 
by it, as we used to do in such Journies \ next Day about 
nine in the Morning, by the good Hand of God, we came 
well to the Falls, and by his Providence found there an 
Indian Man, a Woman and Boy with a Canoe : So we hired 



On Phila- 
delphia, see 
Contempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
161, 163; II, 
No. 28. 



No. 26 is by 
Reverend 
William 

EnMUNDSON 

(1627-1716), 
English yeo- 
man, soldier 
in the parlia- 
mentary 
army, and 
afterward 
Quaker 
preacher. 
He made 
two journeys 
to America, 
the first in 
company 
with George 
Fox. 1 nter- 
spersed in 
the faithful 
journal 
which he 
kept of his 



70 Second Colonization [1676 



travels and 
work are to 
be found 
many valu- 
able observa- 
tions upon 
the colonies. 
— Delaware 
was a very 
small and 
weak colony, 
but it had the 
same gov- 
ernor as 
Pennsylva- 
nia, and at 
times the 
same legis- 
lature. — See 
Contempora- 
ries, I, ch. 
xxiv; II, No. 
27. 

The falls of 
the Delaware 
are near 
Trenton. 

Wampum = 
strings of 
small white 
shells used as 
ornaments 
and as 
money. 

There were 
many Finns 
among the 
Swedish 
settlements. 

He passes 
the site of the 
later Phila- 
delphia with- 
out notice. 

Uplands, 
now Chester. 

For John 
Fenwick, see 
above. No. 23. 

The deputy- 
governor was 



him for some Wampampeg, to help us over in the Canoe ; 
We swam our Horses, and though the River was broad, yet 
got well over; and, by the Directions we received from 
Friends, travelled towards Delaware Town along the West 
Side of the River : When we had rode some Miles, we baited 
our Horses, and refreshed ourselves with such Provisions as 
we had, for as yet we were not come to any Inhabitants. 
Here came up to us a Finland Man well horsed, who could 
speak English, he soon perceived what we were, and gave 
us an Account of several Friends, his House was as far as 
we could ride that Day ; he took us there, and lodged us 
kindly. 

Next Morning, being first Day of the Week, we went to 
Uplands, where were a few Friends met at Robert Wade's 
House, and we were glad one of another, and comforted in 
the Lord. After Meeting we took Boat and went to Salem 
about thirty Miles, there lived Johti Fenfiick, and several 
Families of Friends from England, we ordered our Horses 
to meet us at Delaware Town by Land ; so we got Friends 
together at Salem, and had a Meeting : After which we had 
the Hearing of several Differences, and endeavoured to make 
Peace among them. 

Next Day we went by Boat, accompanied by several 
Friends, to Delaware Town, and there met with our Horses 
according to Appointment, but for a long Time could get 
no Lodging for ourselves, or them ; the Inhabitants being 
most of them Dutch and Finns, and addicted to Drunken- 
ness. That Place was then under the Government of A'etu- 
York, and is now called Pennsylvania, there was a Deputy- 
Governor in it ; so when we could not get a Lodging, I went 
to the Governor, and told him. We were Travellers, and had 
Money to pay for zvhat we called for, but could ?iot get Lodg- 
ing/or our Money. He was very courteous, and went with 
us to an Ordinary, and commanded the Man to provide us 
Lodging (which was both mean and dear) but the Governor 



No. 27] 



Georgia 



71 



sent his Man to tell me, That what I wanted, send to him Captain John 

for and I should have it. ^°"'^'- 

The next Morning we took our Journey towards Mary- -^^^ '"'^^^ ^ 
land, accompanied with Robert Wade and another Friend : 
We travelled hard and late at Night, so came to Williatn 

Southerby^ at Saxifrax River. From thence we went among Sassafras 

Friends on the Eastern Shore in Maryland . . . j^'^^""' ''^'^^^- 

William Edmundson, Journal (London, 1774), 107-109. 



27. Progress of Georgia (1733) 

WE set sail from Gravesend, on the 17th of Novr. 
1732, in the ship Anne, of 200 ions, John Thomas, 
Master, being about 130 persons, and arrived off the 
bar of Charlestown on the 13th day of January following. 
Mr. Oglethorpe went on shore to wait on the Governour ; 
was received with great marks of civility and satisfaction ; 
obtained an order for Mr. Middleton, the King's pilot, to 
carry the ship into Port Royal ; and for small craft to carry 
the Colony from thence to the river Savannah, with a prom- 
ise of further assistance from the Province. He returned 
on board the 14th day; and came to an anchor within the 
bar of Port Royal, at about 16 miles' distance from Beau- 
fort. On the 1 8th, he went on shore upon Trench's island, 
and left a guard of 8 men upon John's ; being a point of 
that island which commands the channel, and is about half- 
way between Beaufort and the river Savannah : — they had 
orders to prepare Huts, for the reception of the Colony, 
against they should lie there in their passage. From thence, 
he went to Beaufort town, where he arrived about one 
o'clock in the morning ; and was saluted with a discharge 
of all the Artillery, and had the new Barracks fitted up ; 
where, the Colony landed on the 20th day ; and were, in 



This account 
was written 
either by or 
with the 
sanction of 
General 
James 
Edward 
Ogle- 
thorpe 
(1696- 1785), 
founder of 
Georgia. — 
See Contem- 
poraries, II, 
No. 39.— 
Georgia 
was founded 
as a philan- 
thropic enter- 
prise, to give 
homes to 
poor people; 
slavery was 
for nearly 
twenty years 
forbidden. 
Till after the 
Revolution 
Georgia had 
very few in- 
habitants. — 
See Contem- 
poraries, II, 
ch. vi. 



72 



Second Colonization [1733 



On the con- 
vivial habits 
of the time, 
see Contem- 
poraries, II, 
No. 84. 



I.e. John's 
Island. 



Tithing = a 
company of 
ten house- 
holders. 



every respect, cheerfully assisted by Lieut. Watts, Ensign 
Farrington, and the other officers of his Majesty's independ- 
ent company, as also by Mr. Delabarr, and other gentlemen 
of the neighborhood. 

While the Colony refreshed themselves there, Mr. Ogle- 
thorpe went up the River, and chose a situation for a Town ; 
and entered into a treaty with Tomochichi, the Micco, or 
Chief of the only nation of Indians living near it. He 
returned on the 24th day ; and they celebrated the Sunday 
following, as a day of Thanksgiving for their safe arrival ; 
and a sermon was preached by the Revd. Mr. Jones, (the 
Revd. Dr. Herbert, who came with the Colony, preaching 
that day at Beaufort town.) There was a great resort of 
the Gentlemen of that neighborhood, and their families ; 
and a plentiful Dinner provided for the Colony, and all that 
came, by Mr. Oglethorpe ; being 4 fat hogs, 8 turkies, 
besides fowls, English Beef, and other provisions, a hogs- 
head of punch, a hogshead of beer, and a large quantity 
of wine ; and, all was disposed in so regular a manner, that 
no person was drunk, nor any disorder happened. 

On the 30th, the Colony embarked on board a sloop of 
70 tons, and 5 Periaugers [dugouts], and made sail; but 
were forced by a storm, to put in at a place called the Look- 
out, and to lie there all night : — the next day, they arrived 
at John's ; where they found huts capable to contain them 
all, and a plentiful supper of venison. They re-embarked 
the next day ; and in the afternoon arrived at the place 
intended for the Town. 

Being arrived, on the ist of February, at the intended 
Town, before night they erected 4 large tents, sufficient 
to hold all the people, being one for each ty thing ; they 
landed their bedding, and other little necessaries ; and all 
the people lay on shore. The ground they en(ani])ed upon 
is the edge of the river where the key [wharf] is intended 
to be. 



No. 27] Georgia 7 3 

Until the 7th was spent in making a Crane, and unlad- 
ing the goods: — which done, Mr. Oglethorpe divided the 
people ; employing part, in clearing the land for seed ; part, 
in beginning the palisade ; and the remainder, in felling of 
trees where the Town is to stand. Savannah. 

Col. Bull dixriwed here, with a message from the General 
Assembly to Mr. Oglethorpe, and a letter from his Excel- 
lency Governor Johnson and the Council ; acquainting 
him, that the two Houses, upon a conference, had agreed 
to give 20 barrels of Rice and 109 head of Cattle, besides 
Hogs, to the Trustees ; and, that they had commanded a 
detachment of the Rangers (which are Horse, kept in the 
pay of the Province, for the scouring of the frontiers) and 
the Scout-boat (which is an armed Bark, employed for the 
same purpose by water) to attend him, and take his orders. 

Col. Bull brought with him 4 of his Negroes, who were 
Sawyers, to assist the Colony ; and also, brought provision 
for them, being resolved to put the Trust to no expense ; 
and by this means, to bestow his benefaction in the most 
noble and useful manner. 

On the 9th day, Mr. Oglethorpe and Col. Bull marked 
out the Square, the Streets, and 40 Lots for houses for the 
town ; and the first House (which was ordered to be made 
of clapboards) was begun that day. 

The Town lies on the south side of the river Savannah, 
upon a Flat on the top of a hill ; and 60 yards of it is 
reserved between it and the Key. The river washes the 
foot of the hill ; which stretches along the side of it about 
a mile, and forms a terrace 40 feet perpendicular above 
high-water. 

A Brief Account of the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia, 
under Gen. fames Oglethorpe, Febrttary t\ 1733, in Force, 
Tracts, etc. (Washington, 1836), I, No. ii,'8-io. 



By 

Governor 
John Win- 
THROP, for 
whom see 
above, No. 
21. His 
journal 
throws light 
upon almost 
every phase 
of New Eng- 
land life in 
the first half 
of the seven- 
teenth cen- 
tury. — See 
Contempora- 
ries, I, No. 
107. — On 
early colo- 
nial life, see 
Contempora- 
ries, I, chs. 
xiii, xxi, xxvi. 

Morton's set- 
tlement at 
Merrymount 
had been 
broken up 
by Jolm 
Endicott in 
the summer 
ofi628. — See 
Contempora- 
ries, I, No. 
103. 

Oct. 25. — 
A very early 
example of 
temperance 
sentiment. 

"This ship," 
i^. the 
" Lion." 



CHAPTER V — COLONIAL LIFE IN 
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 

28. New England Life (i 630-1 635) 

THURSDAY, 17 [June, 1630.] We went to Mattachu- 
setts, to find out a place for our sitting down. We 
went up Mistick River about six miles. . . . 

Thursday, 8 [July.] We kept a day of thanksgiving in 
all the plantations. . . . 

[Sept. 30.] The wolves killed six calves at Salem, and 
they killed one wolf. 

Thomas Morton [was] adjudged to be imprisoned, till he 
were sent into England, and his house burnt down, for his 
many injuries offered to the Indians, and other misdemean- 
ours. Capt. Brook, master of the [ship] Gift, refused to 
carry him. . . . 

[Oct. 25.] The governour, upon consideration of the 
inconveniences which had grown in England by drinking 
one to another, restrained it at his own table, and wished 
others to do the like, so as it grew, by little and little, to 
disuse. . . . 

[Feb. 10, 1 63 1.] The poorer sort of people (who lay 
long in tents, etc.) were much afflicted with the scurvy, and 
many died, especially at Boston and Charlestown ; but when 
this ship came and brought store of juice of lemons, many 
recovered speedily. It hath been always observed here, 
that such as fell into discontent, and lingered [longed] after 
their former conditions in England, fell into the scurvy and 
died. . . . 

[Nov. 4.] The governour, his wife and children, went 

74 



No. 28] 



New England 



IS 



on shore, with Mr. Peirce, in his ship's boat. The ship 
gave them six or seven pieces. At their landing, the cap- 
tains, with their companies in arms, entertained them with 
a guard, and divers voUies of shot, and three drakes; and 
divers of the assistants and most of the people, of the near 
plantations, came to welcome them, and brought and sent, 
for divers days, great store of provisions, as fat hogs, kids, 
venison, poultry, geese, partridges, etc., so as the like joy 
and manifestation of love had never been seen in New Eng- 
land. It was a great marvel, that so much people and such 
store of provisions could be gathered together at so few 
hours' warning. . . . 

[April 16, 1632.] A wear [dam] was erected by Water- 
town men upon Charles River, three miles above the town, 
where they took great store of shads. 

A Dutch ship brought from Virginia two thousand bushels 
of corn, which was sold at four shillings sixpence the 
bushel. , . . 

[J^'^y 5*] At Watertown there was (in the view of divers 
witnesses) a great combat between a mouse and a snake ; 
and, after a long fight, the mouse prevailed and killed the 
snake. The pastor of Boston, Mr. Wilson, a very sincere, 
holy man, hearing of it, gave this interpretation : That the 
snake was the devil; the mouse was a poor contemptible 
people, which God had brought hither, which should over- 
come Satan here, and dispossess him of his kingdom. Upon 
the same occasion, he told the governour, that, before he 
was resolved to come into this country, he dreamed he 
was here, and that he saw a church arise out of the earth, 
which grew up and became a marvellous goodly church. . . . 

December 5 [1633.] John Sagamore died of the small 
pox, and almost all his people ; (above thirty buried by 
Mr. Maverick of Winesemett in one day). The towns in 
the bay took away many of the children ; but most of them 
died soon after. ... 



I.e. fired a 
salute. 

Small pieces 
of artillery. 



This is a 
curious ex- 
an%3le of the 
tendency of 
the Puritans 
to see spirit- 
ual warnings 
in the com- 
monest hap- 
penings. 



Samuel 
Maverick 
was the origi- 
nal settler of 
what is now 
East Boston 
and Chelsea. 



76 Early Colonial Life [1630-1535 



A common 

colonial 

punishment. 



In the early 
days of the 
colony, coin 
was very lit- 
tle used as a 
medium of 
exchange. 



[March 4, 1634.] At this court all swamps, above one 
hundred acres, were made common, etc. Also Robert Cole, 
having been oft punished for drunkenness, was now ordered 
to wear a red D about his neck for a year. . . . 

[Oct. 14.] It was informed the governour, that some 
of our people, being aboard the bark of Maryland, the 
sailors did revile them, calling them holy brethren, the 
members, etc., and withal did curse and swear most horri- 
bly, and use threatening speeches against us. The gov- 
ernour wrote to some of the assistants about it, and, upon 
advice with the ministers, it was agreed to call them in 
question ; and to this end (because we knew not how to 
get them out of their bark) we apprehended the merchant 
of the ship, being on shore, and committed him to the mar- 
shal, till Mr. Maverick came and undertook that the offenders 
should be forthcoming. The next day (the governour not 
being well) we examined the witnesses, and found them fall 
short of the matter of threatening, and not to agree about 
the reviling speeches, and, beside, not able to design cer- 
tainly the men that had so offended. Whereupon (the bark 
staying only upon [for] this) the bail was discharged, and 
a letter written to the master, that, in regard such disorders 
were committed aboard his ship, it was his duty to inquire 
out the offenders and punish them ; and withal to desire 
him to bring no more such disordered persons among 
us. . . . 

[March 4, 1635.] ^^ ^^i^ court brass farthings were for- 
bidden, and musket bullets made to pass for farthings. . . . 

[April.] Some of our people went to Cape Cod, and 
made some oil of a whale, which was cast on shore. There 
were three or four cast up, as it seems there is almost every 
year. 



John Winthrop, T/ie History of New Ens^land frofn i6jo to 
1649 (edited by James Savage, Boston, 1853), I. 32-i88/^/j-.f/;//. 



No. 29] 



Church Services 



11 



29. Church Services (1642) 

A CHURCH is gathered there after this maner: A con- 
venient, or competent number of Christians, allowed 
by the generall Court to plant together, at a day prefixed, 
come together, in publique manner, in some fit place, and 
there confesse their sins and professe their faith, one unto 
another, and being satisfied of one anothers faith & repent- 
ance, they solemlny [solemnly] enter into a Covenant with 
God, and one an other (which is called their Church 
Covenant, and held by them to constitute a Church) to 
this effect : viz. 

To forsake the Devill, andall his workes, and the vanities 
of the sinfuU world, and all their former lusts, and corrup- 
tions, they have lived and walked in, and to cleave unto, 
and obey the Lord Jesus Christ, as their onely King and 
Law-giver, their onely Priest and Prophet, and to walke 
together with that Church, in the unity of the faith, and 
brotherly love, and to submit themselves one unto an other, 
in all the ordinances of Christ, to mutuall edification, and 
comfort, to watch over, and support one another. 

Whereby they are called the Church of such a place, 
which before they say were no Church, nor of any Church 
except the invisible : After this, they doe at the same time, 
or some other, all being together, elect their own Officers, 
as Pastor, Teacher, Elders, Deacons, if they have fit men 
enough to supply those places ; else, as many of them as 
they can be provided of. . . . 

When a man or woman commeth to joyne unto the 
Church so gathered, he or shee commeth to the Elders 
in private, at one of their houses, or some other place 
appointed, upon the weeke dayes, and make knowne their 
desire, to enter into Church-fellowship with that Church, 
and then the ruling Elders, or one of them, require, or aske 



By Thomas 

Lechford 

(I590-I644?), 

who was in 
Massachu- 
setts from 
1638 till 1641, 
when he re- 
turned to 
England in 
disgust. He 
was the first 
to practise 
law in the 
province. 
His com- 
ments, 
though hos- 
tile, are valu- 
able. — For 
Lechford, 
see Contem- 
po?-aries, I, 
Nos. 91, no. 
— For church 
services, see 
Contempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
143, 169; H, 
ch. XV. An 
excellent sec- 
ondary study 
of Puritan 
religious feel- 
ing is Barrett 
Wendell's 
Cotton' 
Mather. 

This was the 
fundamental 
principle of 
the Puritan 
church 
polity. 

The Puritans 
were much 
averse to 
having 
women take 
part in public 
religious 
worship ; not 
so the 



78 



Early Colonial Life [1642 



Quakers and 
Methodists. 



I.e. have 
been aroused 
by preaching, 
private read- 
ing, or con- 
versation. 



him or her, if he bee willing to make known unto them the 
worke of grace upon their soules, or how God hath beene 
dealing with them about their conversion : which (at Boston^ 
the man declareth usually standing, the woman sitting. And 
if they satisfie the Elders, and the private assembly, (for 
divers of the Church, both men and women, meet there 
usually) that they are true beleevers, that they have beene 
wounded in their hearts for their originall sinne, and actuall 
transgressions, and can pitch upon some promise of free 
grace in the Scripture, for the ground of their faith, and 
that they finde their hearts drawne to beleeve in Christ 
Jesus, for their justification and salvation, and these in the 
ministerie of the Word, [in] reading or [in] conference : 
and that they know competently the summe of Christian 
faith . . . Then afterwards . . . they shall be called forth 
before the whole Church. . . . 

Which done, the Elder turneth his speech to the party to 
be admitted, and requireth him, or sometimes asketh him, 
if he be willing to make knowne to the congregation the 
work of grace upon his soule ; and biddeth him, as briefly, 
and audibly, to as good hearing as he can, to doe the same. 

Thereupon the party, if it be a man, speaketh himselfe ; 
but if it be a woman, her confession made before the Elders, 
in private, is most usually (in Boston Church) read by the 
Pastor, who registred the same. . , . 

The party having finished his Discourses of his confession, 
and profession of his faith, the Elder againe speaketh to the 
congregation : Brethren of the congregation, if what you 
have heard of, from this party, doe not satisfie you, as to 
move you to give him the right hand of fellowship, use your 
hberty, and declare your mindes therein . . . 

This done, sometimes they proceede to admit more mem- 
bers, all after the same manner, for the most part, two, three, 
foure, or five, or more together, as they have time, spending 
sometimes almost a whole afternoone therein. And then 



No. 29] 



Church Services 



79 



the Elder calleth all them, that are to be admitted, by 
name, and rehearseth the covenant, on their parts, to them, 
which they publiquely say, they doe promise, by the helpe 
of God, to performe : And then the Elder, in the name of 
the Church, promiseth the Churches part of the covenant, 
to the new admitted members. So they are received, or 
admitted. 

Then they may receive the Sacrament of the Lords supper 
with them, and their children bee baptized, but not before : 
also till then they may not be free men of the Common- 
wealth, but being received in the Church they may. . . . 



T 



HE publique worship is in as faire a meeting house Commonly 
as they can provide, wherein, in most places, they gx'en^sVof 
have beene at great charges. Every Sabbath or Lords day, the town, 
they come together at Bosto7i, by wringing of a bell, about 
nine of the clock or before. The Pastor begins with solemn 
prayer continuiug[-ing] about a quarter of an houre. The 
Teacher then readeth and expoundeth a Chapter ; Then a 
Psalme is sung, which ever one of the ruling Elders dictates. 
After that the Pastor preacheth a Sermon, and sometimes 
ex tempore exhorts. Then the Teacher concludes with 
prayer, and a blessing. 

Once a moneth is a Sacrament of the Lords Supper, 
whereof notice is given usually a fortnight before, and then 
all others departing save the Church, which is a great deale 
lesse in number then [than] those that goe away, they re- 
ceive the Sacrament, the Ministers and ruling Elders sitting 
at the Table, the rest in their seats, or upon forms : All 
cannot see the Minister consecrating, unlesse they stand up, 
and make a narrow shift. . . . Then a Psalme is sung, and 
with a short blessing the congregation is dismissed. . . . 



Thomas Lechford, Plain Dealing: or, Nevves from New- 
England (London, 1642), 2-17 passim. 



8o 



Early Colonial Life [1659 



By William 
Robinson 
and Mak- 

MADUKE 

Stevenson 
(ti659). Rob- 
inson was a 
merchant of 
London, 
Stevenson a 
farmer from 
Yorkshire. 
Both emi- 
grated to 
Rhode Island 
and came 
thence to 
Massachu- 
setts Biy, 
where, upon 
refusal to 
submit to a 
sentence of 
banishment 
on pain of 
death, they 
were thrown 
into prison 
and hanged, 
October 27, 
1659. The 
following let- 
ter, written in 
prison just 
before their 
execution, is 
typical of 
those pro- 
duced by 
New Eng- 
land Quakers 
in that 

period. — See 
Contetupora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
140-142. 

The Quakers 
believe that 
Christ con- 
tinues to re- 
veal Himself 
to individuals 
and to ex- 
press Him- 
self through 
them. 



30. A Quaker Warning (1659) 

HEARKEN and give Ear, thou Town of Boston, lend 
an Ear, O ye Rulers, Chief-Priests, and Inhabitants 
thereof! Listen all you that dwell therein. Rich and Poor, 
Small and Great, High and Low, Bond and Free, of what 
Sort soever, give Ear ; be attentive to the Words of my 
Mouth, which proceed from the Spirit of the Lord, and from 
the Power of the Almighty within me, 

I have often considered your Conditions, and your Actings 
have often come into my Remembrance, which hath caused 
me often to lament, because of the Hardness of your Hearts, 
who do thus slight the Almighty, and requite the Most High : 
Oh foolish and unwise ! Ye who do not regard the Lord that 
made you, who hath often sent to you his Servants to give 
you Warning of the mighty Day of the Lord of Hosts, of the 
terrible Day of the Lord God Almighty, which draweth near, 
it hastens apace ... O ye Rulers and Chief- Priests, are ye 
combining together? Are ye joined together? Are ye in 
League together as the Rulers and Chief-Priests were in 
former Ages? Consider their Ends, and consider what you 
are doing : Are you so blind that you cannot see you are 
persecuting the Saints of the Most High ? You who are 
seeking the Life pf the Righteous, and that nothing but 
Blood will satisfy, IT/ie Lord will give you Blood to drink, you 
that thirst for it, jlou shall have enough of it ; you who spill 
and drink the Blood of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus, are 
not your Brethren gone before you, in whose Steps you are 
treading? And the Fruits of the Devil you are bringing 
forth . . . And do you thus requite the Lord for his Loving- 
kindness, to whip, to imprison, and cut off the Ears of his 
Servants, that are sent unto you? Is this your preaching 
forth of Christ? Are these your good Examples to others? 
Come, let us reason together : Have you not lost natural 



No. 3o] A Quaker Warning 8i 

Affection? Have you not lost Tenderness and Compassion? 
Woe is me for thee ! Oh ! thou New- England, who hast 
made such a Noise among the Nations : Is thy Religion 
come to no more than whipping, imprisoning, burning in 
the Hand, and cutting off Ears, and banishing upon Death ? 
What will be the next Law that thou wilt make, O New- 
England, against those whom thou scornfully callest Quakers ? 
Terming them. The cursed Sect of the Quakers. If they 
were a cursed Sect, as thou hast termed them, it seems they 
should be so for thee, and so die for thee : For thou hast 
made a Law to put them to Death, if they come a second 
Time within thy Borders. But I say, the Lord hath blessed 
the People called Quakers, and they are blessed, and shall 
be blessed for evermore. . . . 

Oh ye Hypocrites ! How can you sing, and keep such a 
Noise concerning Religion, when your Hatids are full of 
Blood, and your Hearts full of Iniquity? Wash you, make 
you clean, put away the Evil of your Doings : Cease to do 
Evil: Learn to do Good: Cleanse your Hands, you Sijiners, 
and your Hea^'ts, you HypociHtes ; for your Prayers are 
Abomination to me, saith the Lord of Hosts : Your Singing 
is as the Howling of a Dog in the Streets, such are the Songs 
you sing in your Temple unto me, saith the Lord; jny Spirit 
is weary with hearing, and my Soul is vexed Day after Day 
with your Abomiiiations. Wo ! Wo ! to thee, thou Bloody 
Town of Boston, and the rest that are c(5nfederate with 
THEE, and it thou canst not escape. Thou who hast shed 
the Blood of the innocent People called Quakers, and 
imprisoned and fined them, and taken away their Goods, 
and they have become a Prey unto thee, for thee to exercise 
thy Cruelty upon them, and thou boastest in thy Wickedness, ■ 
and thinkest, thou dost God good Service to hang and put to 
Death the People called Quakers ... 

. . . But take heed, we warn you in the Name of the Lord 
God, consider what you are going to do. In the Name of 



A splendid 
plea for 
religious 
toleration. 



August, 
1659, O.S. 



82 Early Colonial Life [1692 

the Lord God we demand that we may have Liberty for the 
Exercise of our pure Consciences, within your Jurisdiction, 
as well as other English-men, seeing that you cannot lay to 
our Charge the Transgression of any Law of God, we being 
Men that fear the Lord God of Heaven and Earth ; and we 
come not for any Thing of yours, God is our Witness ; it is 
not for any Thing that you have that we come for, for we 
do not lack any outward Thing ; for many of us have both 
Houses and Land of our own, and Silver also in Old-Eng- 
land, so that we seek not any Thing that you have . . . 

In the Common Goal in the Bloody Town of Boston. 

Frovi us who are in Scorn WiLLIAM ROBINSON, 

called Quakers, who are _ 

Sufferers under Zion'. MaRMADUKE StEVENSON. 

Oppressors, the Sixth 
Month 1659. 

Joseph Basse, A Collection of the Sufferings of the People called 
Quakers (London, 1753), 11, 22,?>-2/^j passim. 



By Rev- 
erend 
Cotton 
Mather 
(1663-1728), 
a prominent 
Boston min- 
ister, perhaps 
the most 
learned colo- 
nist of his 
time, and the 
author of 382 
volumes. In 
spite of his 
learning, he 
was vain and 
ill-balanced 
and shared 
in the super- 
stitions of his 
dav. He was 



31. A Witch Trial (1692) 

SVSANNA MARTIN, pleading Not Guilt}' to the 
Indictment of Witchcraft, brought in against her, 
there were produced the Evidences of many Persons very 
sensibly and grievously Bewitched ; who all complained of 
the Prisoner at the Bar, as the Person whom they believed 
the cause of their Miseries. And now, as well as in the 
other Trials, there was an extraordinary Endeavour by 
Witchcrafts, with Cruel and frequent Fits, to hinder the 
poor Sufferers from giving in their Complaints, which the 
Court was forced with much Patience to obtain, by much 
waiting and watching for it. 



No. 31] 



A Witch Trial 



83 



II. There was now also an account given of what passed 
at her first Examination before the Magistrates. The Cast 
of her Eye, then striking the afflicted People to the Ground, 
whether they saw that Cast or no ; there were these among 
other Passages between the Magistrates and the Examinate. 

Magistrate. Pray, what ails these People ? 

Martin. I don't know. 

Magistrate. But what do you think ails them ? 

Martin. I don't desire to spend my Judgment upon it. 

Magistrate. Don't you think they are bewitch'd? 

Martin. No, I do not think they are. 

Magistrate. Tell us your Thoughts about them then. 

Martin. No, my thoughts are my own, when they are in, 
but when they are out they are anothers. Their Master. — 

Magistrate. Their Master? who do you think is their 
Master ? 

Mai'tin. If they be dealing in the Black Art, you may 
know as well as I. 

Magistrate. Well, what have you done towards this? 

Martin. Nothing at all. 

Magistrate. Why, 'tis you or your Appearance. 

Martin. I cannot help it. 

Magist. Is it not your Master? How comes your Appear- 
ance to hurt these ? 

Afar tin. How do I know? He that appeared in the 
Shape of Samuel, a glorified Saint, may appear in any ones 
Shape. 

It was then also noted in her, as in others like her, that 
if the Afflicted went to approach her, they were flung down 
to the Ground. And, when she was asked the Reason of 
it, she said, / cannot tell; it may be, the Devil bears me 
more Malice tha?i another. . . . 

VIII. William Brown testifi'd. That Heaven having 
blessed him with a most Pious and Prudent Wife, this Wife 
of his, one day met with Susatina Martin; but when she 



one of the 
most active 
leaders in the 
witchcraft 
persecutions. 

— For Ma- 
ther, see Old 
South Leaf- 
lets, No. 67 ; 
Contempora- 
ries, I, 

No. 148 ; 
II, No. 92. — 
The witch- 
craft delusion 
swept over 
all the civil- 
ized world, 
and caused 
unmeasured 
cruelty and 
woe ; it ap- 
peared in 
some of the 
other colo- 
nies, and in 
New Eng- 
land ran a 
brief course, 
and was far 
less barbar- 
ous than in 
England at 
the same 
period. Su- 
sanna Martin 
was finally 
executed. 

— For witch- 
craft, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, 
Nos. 16-18. 

The convul- 
sions of 
people who 
were frantic 
with fear are 
here ac- 
cepted as 
legal evi- 
dence. 

Examinate = 
the person 
examined. 



84 Early Colonial Life [1692 



It seems in- 
credible that 
such gossip 
should be 
admitted as 
testimony. 



approach'd just unto her, Martin vanished out of sight, 
and left her extreamly affrighted. After which time, the 
said Martin, often appear'd unto her, giving her no httle 
trouble ; and when she did come, she was visited with 
Birds, that sorely peck'd and prick'd her ; and sometimes, 
a Bunch, like a Pullet's Egg, would rise in her Throat, ready 
to choak her, till she cry'd out, Witch, you shan^t choak me ! 
While this good Woman was in this extremity, the Church 
appointed a Day of Prayer, on her behalf; whereupon her 
Trouble ceas'd ; she saw not Martin as formerly ; and the 
Church, instead of their Fast, gave Thanks for her Deliver- 
ance. But a considerable while after, she being Summoned 
to give in some Evidence at the Court, against this Martin, 
quickly thereupon, this yiarti?i came behind her, while she 
was milking her Cow, and said unto her, For thy defa>nitig 
her [me] at Court, I'll make thee the jniserablest Creature 
in the World. Soon after which, she fell into a strange kind 
of distemper, and became horribly frantick, and uncapable 
of any reasonable Action ; the Physicians declaring, that 
her Distemper was preternatural, and that some Devil had 
certainly bewitched her ; and in that condition she now 
remained. . . . 

XII. But besides all of these Evidences, there was a 
most wonderful Account of one Joseph Ring, produced on 
this occasion. 

This Man has been strangely carried about by Dcemons, 
from one Witch-meeting to another, for near two years 
together ; and for one quarter of this time, they have made 
him, and keep him Dumb, tho' he is now again able to 
speak. . . . 

. . . When he was brought unto these hellish Meetings, 
one of the first Things they still did unto him, was to give 
him a knock on the Back, whereupon he was ever as if 
bound with Chains, uncapable of stirring out of the jilace, 
till they should release him. He related, that there often 



No. 32] 



A Dutch Town 



85 



came to him a Man, who presented him a Book, whereto he One of the 
would have him set his Hand; promising to him, that he [fue^nto^the 
should tlTen have even what he would ; and presenting him fancied cere- 
with all the delectable Things, Persons and Places, that he 
could imagin[el. But he refusing to subscribe, the busi- 
ness would end with dreadful Shapes, Noises and Screeches, 
which almost scared him out of his Wits. Once with the 
Book, there was a Pen offered him, and an Ink-horn with 
Liquor in it, that seemed like Blood : But he never 
toucht it. 

This Man did now affirm, That he saw the Prisoner at 
several of those hellish Randezvouzes. 

Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World: being an 
AccoJint of the Tryals of Several Witches, lately Ex\_e']cHted 
in New-England (first London edition, 1693), jo-yG passim. 



32. Life in New York (i 647-1 658) 

WHEREAS we have experienced the insolence of 
some of our inhabitants, when drunk, their quar- 
relling, fighting and hitting each other even on the Lords 
day of rest, of which we have ourselves witnessed the pain- 
ful example last Sunday in contravention of law, to the 
contempt and disgrace of our person and office, to the 
annoyance of our neighbors and to the disregard, nay con- 
tempt of Gods holy laws and ordinances, which command 
us, to keep holy in His honor His day of rest, the Sabbath, 
and forbid all bodily injury and murder, as well as the means 
and inducements, leading thereto, — 

Therefore, by the advice of the late Director General and 
of our Council and to the end, that instead of Gods curse 
falling upon us we may receive his blessing, we charge, 



From the 
Ordi- 
nances OF 
New Am- 
sterdam. 
These enact- 
ments, ex- 
tending over 
the fourteen 
years 1647- 
1661, present 
a most 
graphic pic- 
ture of im- 
portant as- 
pects of early 
New York 
life. — See 
above, No. 
16; Old South 
Leaflets, 
No. 69 ; Con- 
temporaries, 
I, chs. xxii, 
xxiii. 



86 



Early Colonial Life [1647-1658 



The govern- 
ing body of 
the colony till 
the English 
occupation in 
1664. 

Fort Amster- 
dam was 
situated at 
the foot of 
Bowling 
Green. 



About a 
pound ster- 
ling—a 
heavy fine. 



enjoin and order herewith principally all brewers, tapsters 
and innkeepers, that none of them shall upon the Lords 
day of rest, by us called Sunday, entertain people, tap or 
draw any wine, beer or strong waters of any kind and under 
any pretext before 2 of the clock, in case there is no preach- 
ing or else before 4, except only to a traveller and those 
who are daily customers, fetching the drinks to their own 
homes, — this under the penalty of being deprived of their 
occupation . . . 

Whereas the Hon'''* [Honorable] Director General and 
Council of New Netherland daily see, that the goats and 
hogs here are doing great damage in orchards, gardens 
and other places around Fort Amsterdam, which not only 
prevents the cultivation of fine orchards and the improve- 
ment of lots, but is also an injury to many private parties, — 

Therefore wishing to remedy it, the Director General and 
Council order, that henceforth no hogs or goats shall be 
pastured or kept between Fort New Amsterdam and its 
vicinity and the Fresh Water, unless within the fences of the 
owners, so made, that the goats cannot jump over and dam- 
age any one. . . . 

We have learned by experience, that on New Years Day 
and Mayday the firing of guns, the planting of Maypoles 
and the intemperate drinking cause, besides the useless 
waste of powder, much drunkenness and other insolent 
practices with sad accidents of bodily injury[ ;] and to 
prevent this in the future the Director General and Council 
strictly forbid within the Province of New Netherland, the 
firing of guns on New Years and Mayday, the planting of 
Maypoles, the noisy beating of drums and the treating with 
wine, brandy or beer[ ;] and they do so, to prevent further 
mishaps, under a fine of 12 fl. [florins] for the first time, 
double the amount for the second time and arbitrary cor- 
rection for the third offense, to be divided ^ to the officer, 
•^ to the poor and ^ for the informer. . . . 



No. 32] 



A Dutch Town 



87 



The Director General and Council hereby not only warn 
their good subjects, but also order, that they shall move 
closer together in villages, neighborhoods and hamlet[s] 
during the coming spring, that they may be better protected 
against attacks and surprises by the savages through their 
own efforts and through the faithful soldiery of the Director 
General and Council. All those, who contrary to this order 
shall remain living on their isolated plantations, do so at 
their own peril without assistance in the time of need from 
the Director General and Council ; they shall also yearly 
pay a fine of 25 fl. for the pubhc benefit. It is also ordered, 
in order to prevent sudden conflagrations, that henceforth 
no house shall be roofed with straw or reeds and no chim- 
ney be made of shingles or wood. . . . 

The Director General and Council have credibly been 
informed, that not only conventicles and meetings are held 
here and there in this Province, but that also unqualified 
persons presume in such meetings to act as teachers in 
interpreting and expounding God's holy Word without ec- 
clesiastical or temporal authority. This is contrary to the 
general political and ecclesiastical rules of our Fatherland 
and besides such gatherings lead to troubles, heresies and 
schisms. Therefore to prevent this the Director General 
and Council strictly forbid all such public or private con- 
venticles and meetings, except the usual and authorized 
ones, where Gods reformed and ordained Word is preached 
and taught in a meeting for the reformed divine service 
conform[able] to the Synod of Dort and followed here as 
well as in the Fatherland and other reformed churches of 
Europe, under a fine of 100 pounds Flemish to be paid by 
all, who in such public or private meetings, except the usual 
authorized gatherings . . . presume to exercise without due 
qualification the duties of a preacher, reader or precentor and 
each man or woman, married or unmarried, who are found 
at such a meeting, shall pay a fine of 25 pounds. . . . 



This edict 
had little 01 
no effect. 



Like the 
" prophecy- 
ings " de- 
scribed 
above. 
No. 14. 



A synod con- 
vened at Dort 
in the Nether- 
lands, in 
1618-19, to 
settle points 
of faith in the 
Reformed 
Church of the 
Netherlands. 

One pound 
Flemish = 
6 fl. or ^2.40 



8 8 Early Colonial Life [1679 



Mayor and 
assistants, or 
councilmen. 



These places 
were all near 
the water 
front. The 
City Hall 
stood in what 
is now Pearl 
Street ; 
Litsco, or 
Litschoe, 
kept the old 
tavern at the 
east end of 
Wall Street. 



It has been found, that within this City of Amsterdam in 
N. N. [New Netherland] many burghers and inhabitants 
throw their rubbish, filth, ashes, dead animals and such like 
things into the public streets to the great inconvenience of 
the community and dangers arising from it. Therefore the 
Burgomasters and Schepens ordain and direct, that hence- 
forth no one shall be allowed to throw into the streets or 
into the graft [canal] any rubbish, filth, ashes, oyster-shells, 
dead animal or anything like it, but they shall bring all such 
things to the to them most convenient of the following places, 
to wit the Strand, near the City hall, near the gallows, near 
Hendrick the baker, near Daniel Litsco, where tokens to 
that effect shall be displayed, but not on the public streets 
under a penalty of 3 fl. for the first offence, 6 fl. for the 
second and arbitrary punishment for the third. . . . 

Berthold Fernow, editor and translator, The Records of New 
Ainstcj-dam (New York, 1897), I, 1-31 passim. 



By Robert 

HOLDEN. 

This is an 
official report 
to the com- 
missioners of 
customs from 
one of the 
royal col- 
lectors in the 
colonies. 
The trade of 
the colonies 
Wits by law 
confined 
pretty closely 
to direct com- 
mf rce with 
England, in 
English or 
colonial ves- 
sels, but there 
was much 



33. The Trade of the Colonies (1679) 



H 



AVEING met with divers informations tend- 
ing to my place there [Albemarle County, 
Carolina] & the frauds used by the traders here [Boston] 
about Tobacco transported thence to this place and else 
where, It is my duty (& ^ [by] the greatest injunctive tie 
devised) to give information of all affaires thereunto relating 
as also "^ [by] severall articles in my Instructions [I am] 
required in such negociations to serve the King faithfully in 
y" misdemeanours of his subjects about the defrauding of 
customes (S:c. The subvvritten accompt of such affaires in 
[is] here inserted. 

About \ dozen traders of this place with their [ac]com- 
plices receive the greatest part of the production of tobacco 



No. 33] 



Trad( 



89 



in the County of Albemarle in the Province of Carolina an- 
nually & 'p [by means of] a person whom through their 
interest w"* the people [they] have factiously made [ — ] one 
M'' Culpeper (a Gentleman I Know not) [ — ] the Collector 
of his Ma'^'^ Customes, by which meanes they & he have 
played such notorious pranks with the specious pretences 
of doing justice and preserving the King's rights that a 
people and Customes . . , were never more infatuated, 
cheated and exhausted ... in these parts of New Eng- 
land . . . 

And as the Tobacco trade [current i.e. now going on] 
causeth their concourse thither [;] & their wayes to leniate 
[lessen] y^ 'impost (which the other subjects of the King 
pay) resteth [stoppeth] not there, for from thence [such 
ways are] brought hither, they have liberty without farther 
examination here to carry the same to Ireland, Holland, 
France, Spain or any other place[,] under the notion [name] 
of fish and such like goods[,] by which the trade is so 
diverted from the true rules of Commerce that trafique in 
this Western world must be monopolized in this Commodity 
only to New England [,] & the rest of His Majesty's people 
so trading must become Bostoniz'd or relinquish dealing if 
speciall care is not had thereto & a settlement of Customes 
[made] here with the King's Officers. 

That the Canary trade in like nature is carried on : Ships 
from hence go thither & load wines, touch at Maderas or 
some other of the Western Islands & there take about a tun 
of their wines which they put in the hatchway coming home ; 
From whence your ship ? From Maderas, with their lading 
Wines, & so draw off the upper Caskes for a taste & so the 
whole ship under this notion is unladed without further 
enquiry. I was told this by one who sa[i]led in a ship that 
practised it. 

That the Scotish Trade by the like Legerdemain jugles 
[tricks] is driven. A ship at Newcastle Berwick Poole &c. 



open smug- 
gling. — See 
Contempora- 
ries, I, ch. 
vii, and Nos. 
83, 88, 150, 
151 ; II, ch. 
xiii. 

During the 
earl)' period 
there was a 
very active 
trade 
between 
Massachu- 
setts and the 
Carolinas. 
Sons of the 
planters were 
educated in 
the Northern 
provinces, 
and there 
was much 
intermarry- 
ing. 



Trade to 
the Canary 
Islands 
(Spanish). 

It was a re- 
fusal of the 
revenue offi- 
cers to sanc- 
tion such a 
proceeding 
which led to 
the seizure of 
John Han- 
cock's sloop 
" Liberty," in 
June, 1768. 



90 Early Colonial Life [1679 



At this time 
Scotland was 
still a sepa- 
rate kingdom 
from Eng- 
land. 



A very early 
example of 
direct trade 
with the 
Indian 
Ocean. 



See above, 
No. 24. 



toucheth taketh in coals or some slight goods, goes for Scot- 
land and there receives great quantities of linen & other 
Scotish goods what they think best to bring & coniing here 
by her English clearings at the Ports &c. abovesaid passeth 
for current without farther inquisition. 

The French, Spanish & what Country else European trade 
in like nature passeth home under the pretence of French 
or Spanish salt &c. by which from France they import all 
that Country wares[,] as Linen, Wines, Rubans [ribbons], 
Silks &c. from Spaine wines, fruits, oyle [oil ;] Portugall the 
like goods &c. from hence transport as afores*^ [aforesaid] 
under the notion of fish to all these places what will turn to 
account. 

Here is just now a ship returned from Madagascar[ ;] by 
the way put severall Negroes on shore at Jamaica, she 
touched I hear at severall parts of East India & besides 
hath brought Elephant' teeth where she got them knows not 
[is not known], she hath -been a year & ^ out. . . . 

For my part I have thought this my duty both to my King 
& yourselves[,] in that place [which] (under your favor) I 
enjoy, to advise that these irregular courses may be pre- 
vented & care taken as your wisdomes herein may appoint, 
without which not only many of His Ma'^'* Liege People will 
be oppressed ; But my Masters the Lords Proprietors of the 
County of Albemarle in the County of Carolina will through 
their interest of trade there be kept in faction & Rebellion 
as now it is and for severall yeare hath been & they [are] 
the cause wholy that their Lordships government cannot 
take place. 

I shall omitt no time nor paines in the execution of my 
office according to my capacity & wholy follow your Listruc- 
tions and Orders & indeavour to regulate [matters] within my 
power & by all opportunities give advice of all occurrences. 

William L. Saunders, editor, The Colonial Records of North 
Carolina (Raleigh, 1886), I, lAf^-iiifi passim. 



No. 34] Southern Plantations 91 



34. Plantation Life in Virginia (1648) 

THE Governor Sir William, caused half a bushel of 
Rice (which he had procured) to be sowen [sown], 
and it prospered gallantly, and he had fifteen bushhels of it, 
excellent good Rice, so that all these fifteen bushels will be 
sowen again this yeer ; and we doubt not in a short time to 
have Rice so plentiful as to afford it at 2^ a pound if not 
cheaper, for we perceive the ground and Climate is very 
proper for it as our Negroes affirme, which in their Country 
is most of their food, and very healthful for our bodies. 

We have many thousand of Acres of cleer Land, I mean 
where the wood is all off it (for you must know all Virginia 
is full of trees) and we have now going neer upon a hun- 
dred and fifty Plowes, with many brave yoak of Oxen, and 
we sowe excellent Wheat, Barley, Rye, Beans, Pease, Oates ; 
and our increase is wonderfiil, and better Grain not in the 
world. 

One Captain Brocas, a Gentleman of the Counsel, a great 
Traveller, caused a Vineyard to be planted, and hath most 
excellent Wine made, and the Country, he saith, [is] as 
proper for Vines as any in Christendome, Vines indeed 
naturally growing over all the Country in abundance : only 
skilful men [are] wanting here. . . . 

Worthy Captaine Matthews, an old Planter of above 
thirty yeers standing, one of the Counsell, and a most de- 
serving Common-wealths-man, I may not omit to let you 
know this Gentlemans industry. 

He hath a fine house, and all things answerable to it ; he 
sowes yeerly store of Hempe and Flax, and causes it to be 
spun j he keeps Weavers, and hath a 7an-house, causes 
Leather to be dressed, hath eight Shoemakers employed in 
their trade, hath forty Negroe servants, brings them up to 
Trades in his house : He yeerly sowes abundance of Wheat, 



Anony- 
mous. From 
a letter writ- 
ten in 1648, 
and ap- 
pended to a 
description 
of Virginia 
sent to Eng- 
land "at the 
request of a 
gentleman of 
worthy note, 
who desired 
to know the 
true state of 
Virginia as it 
now stands." 
— For the life 
of a Southern 
planter, see 
Contempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
61,87,88; II, 
Nos. 82, 83, 
108. 

"Sir Wil- 
liam "= Sir 
William 
Berkeley. 

The Caro- 
linas later 
came to su- 
persede Vir- 
ginia as a 
rice-produc- 
ing district. 

The woods 
were cut by 
the settlers. 

A striking 
example of 
the Southern 
planter, who 
produced the 
necessaries 
for his own 
plantation. 



See Gov- 
ernor Berke- 
ley's report 
of 1671, in 
which he 
states that 
there are no 
free schools 
in Virginia, 
but that the 
system is that 
followed in 
England, 
where every 
man in- 
structs his 
children ac- 
cording to his 
ability ( Con- 
temporaries. 
I, No. 70). 



92 Early Colonial Life [1667-1680 

Barley, &c, Z'he Wheat he selleth at four shillings the 
bushell ; kills store of Beeves, and sells them to victuall 
the ships when they come thither : hath abundance of Kine, 
a brave Dairy, Swine great store, and Poltery [poultry] ; 
he married the Daughter of Sir Tho. Hintou, and in a word, 
keeps a good house, lives bravely, and [is] a true lover of 
Virginia ; he is worthy of much hononr[-our]. 

Our Spring begins the tenth of February, the trees bud, 
the grasse springs, and our Autume and fall of Leafe is in 
November, our Winter short, and most yeers very gentle, 
Snow lies but little, yet Yce [ice] some yeers. 

I may not forget to tell you we have a Free-Schoole, 
with two hundred Acres of Land, a fine house upon it, forty 
milch Kine, and other accommodations to it : the Bene- 
factor deserves perpetuall memory ; his name Mr. Benjamin 
Symes, worthy to be Chronicled ; other petty Schools also 
we have. 

We have most rare coloured Parraketoes [parroquets], 
and one Bird we call the J/ock-bird ; for he will imitate all 
other Birds notes, and cries [like] both day and night- 
birds, yea, the Owles and Nightingalls. 

A Perfect Descriptioti of Virginia : being a full and true Rela- 
tion of the present State of the Plantatiofi . . . (London, 
1649), 14-16 passim. 



By the Vir- 
ginia As- 

SEMKLY. 
In the other 
Southern 
colonics 
there was 
very little 
legislation on 
the subject 
of slavery 
until the next 
century. The 



35. Slavery in Virginia (i 667-1 680) 

/fN act declaring tJiat baptisme of slaves doth Jiot ex- 
■^T- empt themfrom bondage. 

WHEREAS some doubts have risen whether children 
that are slaves by birth, and by the charity and piety of their 
owners made pertakers of the blessed sacrament of bap- 
tisme, should by vertue of their baptisme be made ffree ; 



No. 35] Slavery in Virginia 93 



// IS enacted and declared by this gravid assembly, atid the 
authority thereof, that the conferring of baptisme doth not 
alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or ffree- 
dome ; that diverse masters, ffreed from this doubt, may 
more carefully endeavour the propagation of Christianity 
by permitting children, though slaves, or those of greater 
growth if capable to be admitted to that sacrament. . . . 

About Runawayes. 

WHEREAS it hath been questioned whether servants 
running away may be punished with corporal! punishment by 
their master or magistrate since the act already made gives 
the master satisfaction by prolonging their time by [of] 
service. It is declared and enacted by this assembly that mod- 
erate corporall punishment inflicted by master or magistrate 
upon a runaway servant, shall not deprive the master of the 
satisfaction allowed by the law, the one being as necessary 
to reclayme them from persisting in that idle course, as the 
other is just to repaire the damages susteyned by the mas- 
ter. . . . 

Negro women not exempted frotn tax. 

WHEREAS some doubts, have arisen whether negro 
women set free were still to be accompted tithable according 
to a former act, // is declared by this grand assembly that 
negro women, though permitted to enjoy their ffreedome yet 
ought not in all respects to be admitted to a full fruition of 
the exemptions and impunities [immunities] of the English, 
and are still lyable to payment of taxes. . . . 

Ati act about the casuall killing of slaves. 

WHEREAS the only law in force for the punishment of 
refractory servants resisting their master, mistris or overseer 
cannot be inflicted upon negroes, nor the obstinacy of many 



extracts here 
given are 
fairly typical 
for all the 
Southern 
colonies dur- 
ing the colo- 
nial period ; 
except that 
in South 
Carolina, 
where the 
blacks out- 
numbered 
the whites 
and insur- 
rections were 
proportion- 
ally more to 
be feared, 
the slave 
code was in 
some re- 
spects more 
stringent. 
These stat- 
utes are also 
typical of the 
usual form 
of colonial 
laws. — For 
colonial slav- 
ery, see Con- 
temporaries, 
I, Nos. 86, 
87; II, ch. 
xvi ; for the 
later phases 
of slavery. 
Contempora- 
ries, III. 

The act 
about runa- 
ways applies 
to white in- 
dentured 
servants ; the 
runavray 
might be 
both flogged 
and de- 
tained. — See 
Contempora- 
ries, II, No. 
105. 



The ;ict 
concerning 
negro women 
is an early 
statement of 
the inferior 
legal position 
of free 
negroes. 

Experience 
belied this 
belief that 
angry mas- 
ters would 
not destroy 
their own 
property. 



In the nine- 
teenth cen- 
tury there 
were cases of 
negro slave- 
holders. 



94 Early Colonial Life [1667-16S0 

of them by other then [than] violent nieanes supprest, Be it 
enacted and declared by this grand assembly, if any slave re- 
sist his master (or other by his masters order correcting him) 
and by the extremity of the correction should chance to die, 
that his death shall not be accompted ffelony, but the mas- 
ter (or that other person appointed by the master to punish 
him) be acquit from molestation, since it cannot be pre- 
sumed that prepensed malice (which alone makes murther 
ffelony) should induce any man to destroy his owne es- 
tate. . . . 

Noe Negroes nor Indians to buy christian servants. 

WHEREAS it hath beene questioned whither [whether] 
Indians or negroes manumited, or otherwise free, could be 
capable of purchasing christian servants, // is enacted that 
noe negroe or Indian though baptised and enjoyned their 
owne ffreedome shall be capable of any such purchase of 
christians, but yet not debarred from buying any of their 
owne nation. . . . 



Tythable = 
taxable. The 
hardship 
here sug- 
gested is that 
planters 
should have 
to pay taxes. 



An act assertaifiing the time when Negroe Children shall 
be tythable. 

WHEREAS it is deemed too hard and severe that chil- 
dren (as well christians as slaves) imported into this colony 
should be lyable to taxes before they are capable of working, 
Bee it enacted by the kings most excellent majestic . . . that 
all negroe children imported or to be imported into this colony 
shall within three months after the publication of this law or 
after their arrivall be brought to the county court, where there 
age shalbe adjudged of by the justices holding court, and put 
upon record, which said negroe, or other slave soe brought 
to court, adjudged and recorded shall not be "accompted 
tythable untill he attaines the age of twelve yeares, any former 
law, usuage, or custome to the contrary notwithstanding. . . . 



No. 35] Slavery in Virginia 95 



Afi act for preventing Negroes Instirrections. 

WHEREAS the frequent meeting of considerable num- 
bers of negroe slaves under pretence of feasts and burialls is 
judged of dangerous consequence ; for prevention whereof 
for the future, Bee it enacted by the kings 7nost excellent 
niajestie by and with the consent of the generall assembly, and 
it is hereby enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and 
after the publication of this law, it shall not be lawful! for 
any negroe or other slave to carry or arme himselfe with 
any club, staffe, gunn, sword or any other weapon of defence 
or offence, nor to goe or depart from of[f] his masters 
ground without a certificate from his master, mistris or over- 
seer, and such permission not to be granted but upon pertic- 
uler and necessary occasions ; and every negroe or slave soe 
offending not haveing a certificate as aforesaid shalbe sent 
to the next constable, who is hereby enjoyned and required 
to give the said negroe twenty lashes on his bare back well 
layd on, and soe sent home to his said master, mistris or 
overseer. And it is further etiacted by the authority afore- 
said that if any negroe or other slave shall presume to lift 
up his hand in opposition against any christian, [he] shall 
for every such offence, upon due proofe made thereof by the 
oath of the party before a magistrate, have and receive 
thirty lashes on his bare back well laid on. And it is hereby 
further enacted by. the authority aforesaid that if any negroe 
or other slave shall absent himself from his masters service 
and lye hid and lurking in obscure places, comitting in- 
juries to the inhabitants, and shall resist any person or 
persons that shalby any lawfull authority be imployed to ap- 
prehend and take the said negroe, that then in case of such 
resistance, it shalbe lawfull for such person or persons to kill 
the said negroe or slave soe lying out and resisting . . . 



This statute 
marks one oi 
the great 
dangers of 
slavery ; 
there were 
many insur- 
rections in 
colonial 
times, espe- 
cially the so- 
called " New 
York slave 
plof'of 1741. 



William Waller Hening, The Statutes at Large 
(New York, 1823), II, 26o-^2)2 passitn. 



of Virginia 



CHAPTER VI — RIVALS FOR EMPIRE 



By Henry 

SlEUR DE 

TONTY, 

(1650-1704), 

an Italian, 
who accom- 
panied La 
Salle on 
many of his 
journeys. 
His Memoir, 
published in 
1693, is re- 
garded by 
Parkman as 
excellent 
authority, 
though a spu- 
rious edition 
was pub- 
lished in his 
name in 1697. 
— For Mis- 
sissippi dis- 
coveries and 
explorations, 
see Contem- 
poraries, I, 
ch. v.; II, 
ch. xvii. 

Grenade = 
a bomb 
thrown by the 
hand. 

Michili- 
makinac := 
Machinaw, 
or Machinac, 
near the 
strait con- 
nectingLakes 
Michigan 
and Huron. 

Miamis 
River, near 



36. La Salle on the Mississippi ( i68 1 — 1682) 

AFTER having been eight years in the French service, 
by land and by sea, and having had a hand shot off 
in Sicily by a grenade, I resolved to return to France to 
solicit employment. At that time [1678] the late M. 
Cavelier de la Salle came to Court, a man of great in- 
telligence and merit, who sought to obtain leave to discover 
the Gulf of Mexico by crossing the southern countries of 
North America. . . . the late Monseigneur the Prince 
Conty . . . directed me to him to be allowed to accom- 
pany him in his long journeys, which he very willingly 
assented to. . . . 

. , . We arrived at Michilimakinac about the fete Dieu 
in October [1681]. . . . At the Miamis River I assembled 
some Frenchmen and savages for the voyage of discovery, 
and M. de la Salle joined us in October. We went in 
canoes to the River Chicagou, where there is a portage 
which joins that of the Illinois. The rivers being frozen, 
we made sledges and dragged our baggage thirty leagues 
below the village of Illinois, where, finding the navigation 
open, we arrived at the end of January at the great River 
Mississippi. The distance from Chicagou was estimated at 
140 leagues. We descended the river, and found, six 
leagues below, on the right, a great river, which comes 
from the west, on which there are numerous nations. We 
slept at its mouth. The next day we went on to the village 
of Tamarous, six leagues off on the left. There was no one 
there, all the people being at their winter quarters in the 

96 



No. 36] 



La Salle 



97 



woods. We made marks to inform the savages that we had 
passed, and continued our route as far as the River Oua- 
bache, which is eighty leagues from that of Ilhnois. It 
comes from the east, and is more than 500 leagues in 
length. It is by this river that the Iroquois advance to 
make war against the nations of the south. . . . 

. . . The savages having been informed that we were 
coming down the river, came in their canoes to look for 
us. We made them land, and sent two Frenchmen as host- 
ages to their village ; the chief visited us with the calumet, 
and we went to the savages. They regaled us with the best 
they had, and after having danced the calumet to M. de la 
Salle, they conducted us to their village ... M. de la 
Salle erected the arms of the King there ; they have cabins 
made with the bark of cedar ; they have no other worship 
than the adoration of all sorts of animals. Their country is 
very beautiful, having abundance of peach, plum and apple 
trees, and vines flourish there ; buffaloes, deer, stags, bears, 
turkeys, are very numerous. They have even domestic 
fowls. They have very little snow during the winter, and 
the ice is not thicker than a dollar. They gave us guides 
to conduct us to their allies, the Taencas, six leagues distant. 

The first day we began to see and to kill alligators, which 
are numerous and from 15 to 20 feet long. . . . 

. . . We departed thence on Good Friday, and after a 
voyage of 20 leagues, encamped at the mouth of a large 
river, which runs from the west. We continued our jour- 
ney, and crossed a great canal, which went towards the sea 
on the right. Thirty leagues further on we saw some fisher- 
men on the bank of the river, and sent to reconnoitre them. 
It was the village of the Quinipissas, who let fly their arrows 
upon our men, who retired in consequence. As M. de la 
Salle would not fight against any nation, he made us em- 
bark. . . . We proceeded on our course, and after sailing 
40 leagues, arrived at the sea on the 7th of April, 1682. 



Toledo, 
Ohio. 

Chicagou = 
Chicago. 

This portage 
forms the 
route of the 
Hennepin 
Canal. 

"Great river" 
from the west 
= the 
Missouri. 

Tamarous, 
one of the 
tribes form- 
ing the con- 
federation of 
the Ilhnois. 

Ouabache = 
the Ohio. 

Calumet = 
peace-pipe. 



On the west 
bank, near 
St. Joseph. 



March, 1682. 

Red River. 
A bayou. 



In what is 
now St. 
Charles 
County, on 
the left bank, 
not far above 
New Orleans. 



98 



French and English [1704 



M. de la Salle sent canoes to inspect the channels ; some 
of them went to the channel on the right hand, some to the 
left, and M. de la Salle chose the centre. In the evening 
each made his report, that is to say, that the channels were 
very fine, wide, and deep. We encamped on the right 
bank, we erected the arms of the King, and returned sev- 
eral times to inspect the channels. The same report was 
made. This river is 800 leagues long, without rapids, 400 
Minnesota. from the country of the Scioux, and 400 from the mouth of 
the Illinois river to the sea. The banks are almost unin- 
habitable, on account of the spring floods. The woods are 
all those of a boggy district, the country one of canes and 
briars and of trees torn up by the roots ; but a league or 
two from the river, the most beautiful country in the world, 
prairies, woods of mulberry trees, vines, and fruits that we 
were not acquainted with. . . . 

[Henry] Sieur de Tonty, Memoir, in B. F. French, Historical 
Collections of Louisiana (New York, 1846), Part I, 52-63 
passim. 



Anonv- 

MDUS. From 
a contempo- 
rary manu- 
script 
account 
found among 
the papers 
of Fitz-John 
Winthrop, 
governor of 
Connecticut 
from 1698 
to 1707. It 
is evidently 
an official 
report writ- 
ten on the 
spot, and is 
an excellent 



37. Destruction of Deeriield (1704) 

UPON y' day of y* date above s** [said] about 2 hours 
before day y* French & Indian Enemy made an 
attaque upon Derefield, entering y* Fort with Little discov- 
ery (though it is s*^ y'^ watch shot of [f] a gun & cryed Arm, 
w<='' verry few heard) imeadiately set upon breaking open 
doors & windows, took y^ watch & others Captive & had y'' 
[their] men appointed to Lead y'" [them] away, others im- 
proved [the time] in Rifleing houses of provissions, money, 
cloathing, drink, & packing up cS: sending [them] away ; the 
greatest part standing to their Arms, fireing houses, & killing 
all they could y' [that] made any resistance ; alsoe killing 



No. 37] Destruction of Deerfield 99 



cattle, hogs, sheep & sakeing [sacking] & wasting all that 
came before y"\ Except some persons that Escaped in y* 
Crowds, some by Leaping out at windows & over y^ fortifi- 
cations. Some ran to Capt. Well[s] his Garrison, & some 
to Hatfield with Litle or no cloathing on, & barefooted, w*^^ 
with y^ bitterness of y* season caused y" to come of[f ] w"* 
frozen feete, & Lye Lame [because] of y™. One house, viz, 
Benoni Stebbins, they attaqued Later than some others, 
y* [so that] those in it were well awakened, being 7 men, 
besides woemen and children, who stood stoutly to y'"" [their] 
Armes, firing upon y*^ Enemy & y* Enemy upon y™, causing 
sev" [several] of the Enemy to fall, of w'''' was one frentch- 
man, a Gentile man to appearance. Y^ Enemy gave back, 
they strove to fire y^ house, our men killed 3 or 4 Indians 
in their attempt, y® Enemy being numerous about y^ house, 
powered [poured] much shot upon the house ; y^ walls being 
filled up with brick, y^ force of y^ shot was repelled, yet they 
killed sayd [said] Stebbins, & wounded one man & one 
woeman, of w''^ y* survive^ [survivors] made no discovery to 
y* Assailants, but with more than ordinary Couridge [cour- 
age] kept fireing, haveing powder & Ball sufficient in s*^ 
house ; y* Enemy betook y^selves to the next house & 
y^ Meeting house, both of w'^'' [were] but about 8 rod dis- 
tant, o"" [our] men yet plyed their business & accepting of 
no q"" [quarter], though offered by y^ Enemy, nor [willing 
to] Capitulate,[ ; ] but by [their] guns, giveing little or no 
Respite from y® tyme they began ([they] say some of y'' 
men in y* house shot 40 tymes, & had fair shots at y* Enemy 
all the while) about an hour before day till y^ Sun [was] 
about one hour & half high, at w'^'' tyme they were almost 
spent; yet at the verry pintch [pinch], ready to yield[,] 
o'' men from Hadley & Hatfield about 30 men, rushed in 
upon y* Enemy & made a shot upon them, at w'^*' they 
Quitted their Assaileing y^ house & y* Fort alsoe ; the house 
at Libertie, woemen & children ran to Cap" Wells his fort, 



example of 
the homely 
style of the 
Puritan 
yeoman. 
At that time 
there was no 
settled usage 
as to spelling. 
The Deer- 
field massa- 
cre, Feb. 29, 
1704, was the 
most noted 
of several 
similar 
forays, for 
another of 
which see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, 
No. 117. — 
For inter- 
colonial 
wars, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, 
ch. xix. 

War had 
broken out 
between 
France and 
England in 
1702. 



Quarter = 
surrender on 
promise of 
safety. 



Hatfield was 
12 miles 
away. 



L.of 



Conduct = 
leadership. 



Those of the 
captives who 
survived were 
talcen to Can- 
ada. — For 
a narrative of 
another cap- 
tivity, see 
Contempora- 
ries, I, 
No. 147. 



100 French and English [1749 

the men w"" ours still p'rsued the Enemy, all of them vigor- 
ously, causing many of y*" Enemy to fall, yet being but about 
40 men p'rsued to[o] farr, imprudently, not altogether for 
want of conduct, for Capt. Wells, who had led them, called 
for a retreate, which they Litle mynded, y* Enemy discov- 
iring their numbe' [numbers] haveing ambushm" of men, 
caused o"" men to give back, though to[o] Late, being a Mile 
from y'' Fort ; in y" [their] drawing of [f] & at y"^ Fort [we] 
Lost II of o"' men, viz, Sergt Benj Waite, Sergt Sam" Bolt- 
wood, & his son Rob' Boltwood, Sam" Foot, Sam" AUiss, 
Nath' Warner, Jon"* Ingram, Thomas Selding, David Hoite, 
Jos Ingersoll, & Jos Catlin, & after o"" men recovered the 
Fort againe, the Enemy drew of [f], haveing at s'^ house & 
in y" ingagm" (as is Judge[d] by y^ best calculation we can 
come at) Lost about 50 men, & 12 or 15 wounded (as o'ur 
captive says) w*"'' they carried of[f], & is thought they will 
not see Canada againe (& s'' Captive escaped says) they, 
viz, the Enemy, went 6 mile that night . . . 

George Sheldon, Pocuvituck — A History of Deerfield, Massa- 
chusetts (Deerfield, 1895), I, 302-303. 



By Profes- 
s(')K Peter 
Kalm 
(1715-1779), 
a Swedish 
botanist, who 
travelled in 
Pennsylva- 
nia, New 
York, and 
Canada from 
1748 to 1751. 
The piece is 
a good ex- 
ample of the 
shrewd and 
caiefiil ob- 
servations of 
an educated 



38. The French Trade with the Indians 

(1749) 

ryEPTEMBER the 22d [1749]. The French in 
/ J Canada carry on a great trade with the Indians . . . 
The Indians in this neighbourhood, who go hunting 
in winter like the other Indian nations, commonly bring 
their furs and skins to sale in the neighbouring French 
towns ; however this is not sufficient. The Indians who 
live at a greater distance, never come to Canada at all ; 
and, lest they should bring their goods to the English, as 



No. 38] 



The Fur Trade 10 



the English go to them, the French are obliged to under- traveller.— 

take journies, and purchase the Indian goods in the coun- se'e^berow' 

try of the Indians. This trade is chiefly carried on at Nos. 45, 50; 

Montreal, and a great number of young and old men every ,-ies, 11, Nos. 

year, undertake long and troublesome voyages for that "^ju^t' ^^^' 

purpose, carrying with them such goods as they know the trade was the 

Ifidians Hke, and are in want of. . . . set'tfenient of 

I WILL now enumerate the chief goods which the French Canada.— 

carry with them for this trade, and which have a good run trade, see 

among the Indians. Contempora- 

° ries, I, Nos. 

Muskets, Powder, Shot, and Balls. The Europeans have 60,91,152; 
taught the Indians in their neighbourhood the use of fire- u^, °^" ^^ ' 
arms, and they have laid aside their bows and arrows, which 
were formerly their only arms, and make use of muskets. 
If the Europeans should now refuse to supply the Indians 
with muskets, they would be starved to death ; as almost all 
their food consists of the flesh of the animals, which they 
hunt ; or they would be irritated to such a degree as to 
attack the Europeans. . . . 

Pieces of zvhite cloth, or of a coarse uncut cloth. The 
Indians constantly wear such pieces of cloth, wrapping them 
round their bodies. Sometimes they hang them over their 
shoulders ; in warm weather, they fasten them round the 
middle ; and in cold weather, they put them over the head. 
Both their men and women wear these pieces of cloth, 
which have commonly several blue or red stripes on the 
edge. 

Blue or red cloth. Of this the Indian women make their 
petticoats, which reach only to their knees. They generally 
chuse the blue colour. 

Shirts a?id shifts of linen. As soon as an Pidian fellow, 
or one of their women, have put on a shirt, they never wash 
it, or strip it off, till it is entirely torn in pieces. 

Pieces of cloth, which they wrap round their legs instead 
of stockings, like the Russians. 



10 2 French and English [1749 

Hatchets, knives, scissars, needles, and a steel to strike 
fire with. These instruments are now common among the 
Indians. They all take these instruments from the Euro- 
peans, and reckon the hatchets and knives much better, 
than those which they formerly made of stones and bones. 
The stone hatchets of the ancient Indians are very rare in 
Canada. 

Kettles of copper or brass, sometimes tinned in the inside. 
In these the Indians now boil all their meat, and they have 
a very great run with them. . . . 

Ear-rings of diffetrnt sizes, commonly of brass, and some- 
times of tin. They are worn by both men and women, 
though the use of them is not general. 

Vermillion. With this they paint their face, shirt, and 
several parts of the body. They formerly made use of a 
reddish earth, which is to be found in the country ; but, as 
the Europeans brought them vermillion, they thought noth- 
ing was comparable to it in colour. Many persons have 
told me, that they had heard their fathers mention, that the 
first Frenchmen who came over here, got a great heap of 
Red sulphide furs from the Indians, for three times as much cinnabar as 
or vmriiiion. would ly [lie] on the tip of a knife. 

Verdigrease, to paint their faces green. For the black 
colour, they make use of the soot at the bottom of their 
kettles, and daub their whole face with it. 

Looking glasses. The Indians are very much pleased 
with them, and make use of them chiefly when they want 
to paint themselves. The men constantly carry their look- 
ing glasses with them on all their journies ; but the women 
do not. The men, upon the whole, are more fond of dress- 
ing than the women. 

Burning glasses. These are excellent pieces of furniture 
in the opinion of the Indians ; because they serve to light 
the pipe without any trouble, which an indolent Indian is 
very fond of. 



No. 39] Braddock's Defeat 103 

Tobacco is bought by the northern Indians, in whose 
country it will not grow. The southern Indians always 
plant as much of it as they want for their own consumption. 
Tobacco has a great run amongst the northern Indians, and 
it has been observed, that the further they live to the north- 
ward, the more they smoke of tobacco. 

Wampum, or, as they are here called, porcelanes. They 
are made of a particular kind of shells, and turned into 
little short cylindrical beads, and serve the Indians for 
money and ornament. 

Glass beads, of a small size, and white or other colours. 
The Indian women know how to fasten therr in their rib- 
bands, pouches, and clothes. 

Brass and steel wire, for several kinds of work. 

Brandy, which the India^" v-due ibove all other goods 
that can be brougM mem ■ lOr have they any thing, though 
ever so dear to them, which they would not give away for 
this liquor. But, on account of the many irregularities which 
are caused by the use of brandy, the sale of it has been pro- 
hibited under severe penalties ; however, they do not always 
pay an implicit obedience to this order. 

These are the chief goods which the French carry to the 
India?is, and they have a good run among them. 

Peter Kalm, Travels into North America (translated by John 
Reinhold Forster, London, 1771), III, 262,-2'j^ passim. 



Wampum 
was also a 
currency. 



By COLONEI, 
George 
Washing- 
ton (1732- 
1799), in a 
letter to his 
ATI! 1 ^ 1 1 r ^ r mother, Mrs. 

As I doubt not but you have heard of our defeat, MaryWash- 
and, perhaps, had it represented in a worse light, if possible, ^'°,"' 
than it deserves, I have taken this earliest opportunity to accompanied 



H 



39. Braddock's Defeat (1755) 

Fort Cumberland, i8 July, 1755. 
ONORED Madam, 



I04 French and English [1755 



Braddock's 
e. pedition as 
volunteer 
aid-de-camp. 
The best 
evidence of 
what passes 
before an 
eye-witness 
is a letter 
written while 
the matter is 
fresh. — For 
other pieces 
by Washing- 
ton, see Old 
South Leaf- 
lets, Nos. 10, 
15, 16, 41, 47, 
65 ; Contem- 
poraries, ir, 
Nos. 108, 174, 
195, 206. — • 
For a French 
account of 
Braddock's 
defeat, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, 
No. 127. 

The French 
fort was Fort 
Duquesne. 
The engage- 
ment took 
place on the 
banks of the 
Mononga- 
hela. The 
French had 
at least 800 



Braddock 
insisted that 
his men 
should fight 
in open line. 



give you some account of the engagement as it happeneii, 
within ten miles of the French fort, on Wednesday the 9th 
instant. 

We marched to that place, without any considerable loss, 
having only now and then a straggler picked up by the 
} rench and scouting Indians. When we came there, we 
wee attacked by a party of French and Indians, whose 
number, I am persuaded, did not exceed three hundred 
men ; v>hile ours consisted of about one t-liousand three 
hundred well-armed troops, chiefly regular soldiers, who 
were struck with such a panic, that they behaved with more 
cowardice thaa it is possible to conceive. The officers be- 
haved gallantly, ii; order to encourage their men, for which 
they suffered greatly, there being near sixty killed and 
wounded; a large proportion of the number we had. 

The Virginia troops showed a good deal of .^ravery, and 
were nearly all killed ; for I believe, out of three companies 
that were there, scarcely thirty men are left alive. Captain 
Peyrouny, and all his officers down to a corporal, were 
killed. Captain Poison had nearly as hard a fate, for only 
one of his was left. In short, the dastardly behaviour of 
those they call regulars exposed all others, that were in- 
clined to do their duty, to almost certain death ; and, at 
last, in despite of all the efforts of the oiificers to the con- 
trary, they ran, as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was im- 
possible to rally them. 

The General was wounded, of which he died three days 
after. Sir Peter Halket was killed in the field, where died 
many other brave officers. I luckily escaped without a 
wound, though I had four bullets through my coat, and 
two horses shot under me. Captains Orme and Morris, 
two of the aids-de-camp, were wounded early in the en- 
gagement, which rendered the duty harder upon me, as I 
was the only person then left to distribute the General's 
orders, which I was scarcely able to do, as I was not half 



No. 4o] Capture of Quebec 105 

recovered from a violent illness, that had confined me to 

my bed and a wagon for above ten days. I am still in a 

weak and feeble condition, which induces me to halt here 

two or three days in the hope of recovering a little strength, Braddock's 

to enable me to proceed homewards ; from whence, I fear, opened up 

I shall not be able to stir till towards September : so tliat I '^^^ frontier 

1 n 1 11 c • -.,1 , • to Indian 

shall not have the pleasure of seemg you till then, unless it inroads, 
be in Fairfax. ... I am, honored Madam, your most 
dutiful son. 

George Washington, Writings (edited by Jared Sparks, Boston, 
1834), II, 86-88. 



40. Capture of Quebec (1759) 

IN the beginning of September [1759], the enemy again 
sent above Quebec, 12 vessels to join those already 
there ; this made 20, and defiled along the South shore 
3 thousand men who embarked above. M. de Bougain- 
ville's detachment was then reinforced, and he was ordered 
to follow the movements of those ships. They were usually 
anchored at Cap Rouge, 3 leagues above Quebec. M. de 
Bourgainville was encamped there, with a very strong portion 
of his men. That officer followed the ships, according as 
they moved up or down. 

At length, during the night of the 12'" and 13*'', the enemy 
embarked in barges alongside their ships and passed in front 
of the posts we had between M. de Bougainville and the 
town ; four different sentinels contented themselves with 
calling out, Qui 7>ive ? They answered, France ! They 
were allowed to pass unrecognized. 

The officers who were in command of those posts, did so 
under the persuasion that they were flat bateaux [boats] loaded 
with our provisions [-ns], which the Commandant of the 



By Fran- 
cois Bigot, 
intendant of 
Canada from 
1748 to the 
capture of 
Quebec. This 
is part of an 
official letter 
to the war 
department 
in Paris. 
The impor- 
tance of the 
capture lay 
in the fact 
that there 
was no other 
strong point 
of defence : 
when Quebec 
fell, Canada 
virtually 
changed 
hands. The 
piece illus- 
trates the 
importance 
of hearing 
both sides of 
a story. — 
For an ac- 
count from 



io6 French and English [1759 



the other 
side, see Old 
South Leaf- 
lets, No. 73 ; 
Contempora- 
ries, II, No. 
129. 

Qui vive ? = 
" who goes 
there ? " 

This point is 
now called 
" Wolfe's 
Cove." 



Plains of 
Abraham. 



Provinces of 
France. 



place had ordered that very night to be allowed to pass, and 
which did not come ; they were to leave Cap Rouge. The 
English being arrived in front of a steep hill, three quarters 
of a league from the town, and which they, no doubt, dis- 
covered, was unguarded, ascended it, and attacked one of 
our rear posts that guarded a slope leading to the water's 
edge. The officer of that post received several wounds, but 
was taken prisoner with his detachment. The enemy, there- 
upon, cleared the slope and landed their army which was 
waiting in the barges the succes of their van-guard. The 
ships were dropping down, meanwhile, to support their 
barges. M. de Bougainville did not follow them, expecting 
they would return on the flow of the tide, as they usually 
did. 

At day-break, we were informed at the camp that some of 
our posts, above Quebec, had been attacked. The Marquis 
de Montcalm, who did not look on the matter as so serious, 
sent at first only a few pickets to their assistance, ordering a 
large portion of our army to follow him ; this had diminished, 
in efficiency and numbers, [to] three thousand men or there- 
abouts, who were under the cominand of M. de Bougainville. 
They were all picked men, being composed of the grenadiers 
and volunteers of the army, both troops and Canadians. 

The Marquis de Montcalm was much surprised, when he 
had ascended the height in the rear of the city, to see the 
English army, which was forming on the plain. He gave 
orders to hasten the march of the body which was coming to 
join him, and scarcely had it reached the ground on which 
he stood, when he marched against the enemy and com- 
menced the attack. These different corps, among which 
were the battalions of La Sarre, Royal Rousillon, Languedoc 
Guienne and Beam, amounted only to 3,500 men, or there- 
abouts. Some of them came a league and a half; they had 
not time to recover their breath. This little army fireil 
two volleys at that of the l''.nglish, which amounted, in like 



No. 4o] Capture of Quebec 107 



The English 
force was 
about 3,250. 



manner, to only 3 @. [or] 4 thousand men, but ours, un- 
fortunately, took to flight at the first fire from the enemy, 
and would have been utterly destroyed, had not 8 @. 900 
Canadians thrown themselves into a little wood near St. 
John's gate, whence they kept up so constant a fire on the 
enemy, that the latter were obliged to halt in order to return 
it. This firing lasted a full half hour, which gave the flying 
troops and Canadians time to reach the bridge we had on 
the River St. Charles, to communicate with our troops. 

'Twas in that retreat that the Marquis de Montcalm re- 
ceived a ball in the loins, as he was on the point of entering 
the town by the St. Louis gate. I know all the particulars 
of that landing from Enghsh officers of my acquaintance who 
have communicated them to me ; adding, that Mr. Wolf did 
not expect to succeed ; that he had not attempted to land Wolfe meant 
above Quebec, and that he was to sacrifice only his van-guard *° succee . 
which consisted of 200 men ; that were these fired on, they 
were all to reembark ; that the large guns and mortars posted 
opposite the town had been put again on board, and the 
troops were to return and leave on the 20"^ September. 

We experienced on the same morning, two misfortunes 
which we should never have foreseen : i'' The surprisal of 
one of our posts that considered itself in security, being 



guarded by several that were nearer the enemy, 
loss of a battle. 



The 



E. B. O'Callaghan, editor and translator, Domments relative to 
the Colonial History of the State of New-York (Albany, 1858), 
X, 1051-1052. 



By Colonel 
John Sey- 
mour 
(ti7i2), 
governor of 
Maryland 
from 1703 to 
his deatli. 
The extract 
is from a let- 
ter to the 
Lords of 
Trade, rela- 
tive to Queen 
Anne's war 
(1702-1713). 
In all his 
communica- 
tions to the 
English gov- 
ernment, Sey- 
mour seems 
to have taken 
a somewhat 
pessimistic 
view of exist- 
ing colonial 
conditions, 
especially of 
those in 
Maryland. — 
For the con- 
ditions of 
colonial life, 
see Contem- 
poraries, I, 
chs. ix, xiii, 
xiv, xxi, xxii, 
xxiii, xxvi ; 
II, Part IV. 

" 3.r. bd. per 
cent" — about 
a halfpenny 
a pound for 
tobacco. 



CHAPTER VII — COLONIAL LIFJi iN 
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

41. Discomforts of Colonial Life (1708) 

WEE are dayly made sencible of the loss and removall 
of divers Inhabitants and residents in this Province 
to our neighboring CoUonys of Pensilvania «& Carohna ; The 
chief notices [indications] whereto are the present Poverty 
of this Country, the Planters having suffered extreamly this 
present Warr in the Marketts being shut up so that after the 
numerous hazards of unseasonable weather, lack of Plants, 
the Fly, the ground worme the house wormes, it's \j.e. the 
crop's] being house-burnt, frostbitten, [after] the danger of 
sea and our enemys, [have been] all encountered and over- 
come the freightes have not had near the valine of their 
labour or expence of servants cloathing &c : and those who 
have layd out their Cropps with the Merchants in the Coun- 
try, have not been able to get above three shillings and 
sixpence '^ [per] cent so that for many years last past 
servants and slaves have proved burthensome to many Mas- 
ters and helpt by hard labour to impoverish them. 

The Inhabitants of North Carolina finding in what ill 
Circumstances wee are, here many being indebted for more 
than their Stocks, made an Act of Assembly there, inviting 
all persons to settle with them under the Protection of five 
yeares exemption from paying their debts, which has drawn 
many familys thither, again Pensilvania on the other hand 
by raising the vallue of their coynes [coins] to so extraordi- 
nary a height beyond her Maj"" Royall Proclamation, and 
the great encouragment they give to saylors has induced 

108 



No. 42] 



Discomforts 



109 



many young freemen artifisers and saylors to quit this Prov- 
ince and settle there, so that unles her Maj*^' be graciously 
pleased to lay her com[m]ands on those Governments to 
repeale the aforesaid Carrolina Act of Assembly and conforme 
themselves in lowering their coyns according to the Procla- 
mation, there is no Hkelyhood of preventing her subjects 
continuall desertion hence to those less profitable Collonys. 
As for those miserable people that are so much indebted, 
I know not why their deplorable circumstances should not 
be taken into consideration by her Majesty being pleased 
to recommend to the Generall Assembly an Act of Bank- 
ruptcy in their favour to acquitt them upon delivering up 
their all to their Credito" which is as much as pan be re- 
quired and that it shall be Fellony to conceale or imbeazill 
[embezzle] so that they may be once more enabled to begin 
the world againe, and her Majesty not lose the use of so 
many subjects. 

William L. Saunders, editor, The Colonial Records of North 
Carolina (Raleigh, 1886), I, 682-683. 



" Lowering 
the coins " 
meant a de- 
preciation of 
the currency. 



42. The Great Awakening in New Eng- 
land (1740) 

W 'y RID AY, Septetnber 19 [1740]. Slept pretty well, 
hi and in the Morning perceived fresh Emanations of 
divine Light break in upon and refresh my Soul. 
Was visited by several Gentlemen and Ministers, and went 
to the Governor's with Esquire Willard, Secretary of the 
Province, a Man fearing God, and with whom (tho' before 
unknown in Person) I have corresponded some Time. The 
Governor received me with the utmost Respect : He seemed 
to favour the Things which were of God, and desired me to 



By 

Reverend 
George 
White- 
field (1714- 
1770), a 
celebrated 
English 
Methodist 
preacher and 
revivalist. 
In the inter- 
val between 
1738 and 
1769 he 
made seven 
voyages to 
America, 
and finally 
died here. 
The religious 
movement 
known as 



iio Later Colonial Life 



[1740 



the " Great 
Awakening," 
and the rise 
of the " New 
Lights," 
about 1740, 
were stirred 
by him. — 
For White- 
field, see Con- 
temporaries, 
II, N0.43.— 
For religious 
life in the 
colonies, see 
Contempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
49. 85, 93. 94. 
96, 108, no, 
112, 129, 169; 
II, ch. XV. 

The governor 
of the prov- 
' ince of Mas- 
sachusetts 
was Jonathan 
Belcher. — 
See Contem- 
poraries, II, 
No. 100. 

The commis- 
sary at Bos- 
ton, Roger 
Price, was 
the repre- 
sentative of 
the Bishop 
of London, 
who had 
ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction 
of members 
of the Church 
of England in 
the colonies. 

The " col- 
lege " was 
Harvard, 
then under 
President 
Holyoke, in 
the parish of 
Rev. Nathan- 
iel Appleton. 



see him as often as I could. At eleven I went to publick 
Worship at the Church of England, and afterwards went 
home with the Commissary, who read Prayers. He received 
me very courteously, and it being a Day whereon the Clergy 
of the established Church met, I had an Opportunity of 
conversing with five of them together. . . . 

Wednesday, Septeniber 24. Went this Morning to see and 
preach at Cambridge, the chief College for training up the 
Sons of the Prophets in all New- England. It has one 
President, I think four Tutors, and about a hundred Stu- 
dents. It is scarce as big as one of our least Colleges in 
Oxford, and as far as I could gather from some who well 
knew the State of it, not far superior to our Universities in 
Piety and true Godliness. Tutors neglect to pray with and 
examine the Hearts of their Pupils. Discipline is at too low 
an Ebb. Bad Books are become fashionable amongst them. 
Tillotson and Clarke are read instead of Sheppard, Stoddard, 
and such like evangelical Writers ; and therefore, I chose to 
preach on these Words, We are not as many who corrupt 
the Word of God. And in the Conclusion of my Sermon, I 
made a close Application to Tutors and Students. A great 
Number of neighbouring Ministers attended, as indeed they 
do at all other Times ; and God gave me great Boldness 
and Freedom of Speech. The President of the College and 
Minister of the Parish treated me very civilly. In the After- 
noon I preached again in the Court, without any particular" 
Application to the Students. I believe there were about 
7000 Hearers. The Holy Spirit melted many Hearts. The 
Word was attended with manifest Power . . . 

Sunday, October \g. Felt wonderful Satisfaction in being 
at the House of Mr. Edwards. He is a Son himself, and 
hath also a Daughter of Abraham for his Wife. A sweeter 
Couple I have not yet seen. Their Children were dressed 
not in Silks and Satins, but plain, as becomes the Children 
of those who, in all Things, ought to be Examples of Chris- 



No. 43] Great Awakening iii 



tian Simplicity. " She is a Woman adorn'd with a meek 
and quiet Spirit, talked feelingly and sohdly of the Things 
of God, and seemed to be such a Help meet for her Hus- 
band, that she caused me to renew those Prayers, which, for 
some Months, I have put up to God, that he would be 
pleased to send me a Daughter of Abraham to be my Wife." 
— "I find, upon many Accounts, it is my Duty to marry. — 
Lord I desire to have no Choice of my own. Thou knowest 
my Circumstances ; thou knowest I only desire to marry in 
and for thee. Thou didst chuse a Rebecca for Isaac, chuse 
one for me to be a Help meet for me, in carrying on that 
great Work committed to my Charge." Lord, hear me, 
Lord, let ??iy Cry come unto thee. Preached this Morning, 
collected 59 /. and perceived the Meeting begin sooner, and 
rise higher than before. Dear Mr. Edwards wept during 
the whole Time of Exercise, — The People were equally, if 
not more affected, and my own Soul was much lifted up 
towards God. In the Afternoon the Power encreased yet 
more and more. . . . 

George Whitefield, Cotitimiation of . . . [his] Journal, from a 
few Days after his Return to Georgia to his Arrival at Fal- 
fnouth, on the nth of March, 1741 (London, 1741), 23-47 
passim. 



43. A Satire on Tobacco Planters (1708) 

THE SOT- WEED FACTOR; OR, A VOYAGE TO MARYLAND, &C. 

FOR full three Months, our waveriu[n]g Boat, 
Did thro' the surley Ocean float. 
And furious Storms and threat'ning Blasts, 
Both tore our Sails and sprung our Masts-: 
Wearied, yet pleas'd, we did escape 
Such Ills, we anchor'd at the Cape ; 



John Tillot- 
son and Sam 
uel Clarke 
were philo- 
sophical 
critics. 

Reverend 
Jonathan 
Edwards of 
North- 
ampton was 
the greatest 
of the New 
England 
ministers of 
this period. 



By Eben- 
EZER Cook. 
Nothing defi- 
nite is known 
concerning 
the author of 
this piece. 
Although the 
verses aie 
plainly in 
many re- 
spects a 
caricature, 
they throw 
valuable light 
on the ruder 
side of the 



112 



Later Colonial Life 



[1708 



period. — 
For the life of 
the people of 
the colonies, 
see Contem- 
poraries, 
II, ch. xii. — 
" Sot-weed" 
is of course a 
satire for 
tobacco. — 
For tobacco 
planting, see 
Coiitenipora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
50, 83, 87, 88. 
— For Mary- 
land, see 
above, 

No. 18.— The 
following 
side-notes 
are from the 
original. 

" By the 
Cape, is 
meant the 
Capes of Vir- 
ginia, the 
hrst Land on 
the Coast of 
/ 'irt^'inia and 
Afary-Land." 

" To Cove is 
to lie at An- 
chor safe in 
Harbour." 

" The Bay of 
Piscaio-2vay, 
the usual 
place where 
our Ships 
come to an 
Anchor in 
Maty-Laud'' 

" The Plant- 
ers generally 
wear Blue 
Linnen." 

" A Canoo is 
an Indian 
Boat, cut out 



But weighing soon, we plough'd the Bay, 
To Cove it in Piscato-way, 
Intending there to open Store, 
I put myself and Goods a-shore : 
Where soon repair'd a numerous Crew, 
In Shirts and Drawers of Scotch-cloth Blue. 
With neither Stockings, Hat, nor Shooe. 
These Sot-weed Planters Crowd the Shoar, 
In Hue as tawny as a Moor : 
Figures so strange, no God design'd, 
To be a part of Humane Kind : 
But wanton Nature, void of Rest, 
Moulded the brittle Clay in Jest. 

But e're their Manners I display, ") 

I think it fit I open lay /■ 

My Entertainment by the way ; ) 

That Strangers well may be aware on. 

What homely Diet they must fare on. 

To touch that Shoar, where no good Sense is found, 

But Conversation's lost, and Manners drown'd. 

I crost unto the other side, \ 

A River whose impetuous Tide, > 

The Savage Borders does divide ; ) 

In such a shining odd invention, 

I scarce can give its due Dimention. 

The Indians call this watry Waggon 

Canoo, a Vessel none can brag on ; 

Cut from a Popular-Tree, or Pine, 

And fashion'd like a Trough for Swine : 

In this mosf no^le Fishing- Boat, 

I boldly put myself a- float ; 

Standing Erect, with Legs stretch'd wide, 

We paddled to the other side : 

Where being Landed safe by hap. 



No. 43] 



Sot-Weed Factor 



13 



As Sol fell into Thetis Lap. 

A ravenous Gang bent on the stroul, 

Of Wolves for Prey, began to howl ; 

This put me in a pannick Fright, 

Least I should be devoured quite : 

But as I there a musing stood. 

And quite benighted in a Wood, 

A Female Voice pierc'd thro' my Ears, 

Crying, You Rogue drive home the Steers. 

I listen'd to th' attractive sound, 

And straight a Herd of Cattel found 

Drove by a Youth, and homewards bound 

Cheer'd with the sight, I straight thought fit. 

To ask where I a Bed might get. 

The surley Peasant bid me stay, 

And ask'd from whom I'de run away. 

Surpriz'd at such a saucy Word, 

I instantly lugg'd out my Sword ; 

Swearing I was no Fugitive, \ 

But from Great-Britain did arrive, > 

In hopes I better there might Thrive. 3 

To which he mildly made reply, 

I beg your Pardon, Sir, that I 

Should talk to you \]n?nannerly ; 

But if you please to go with me 

To yonder Hoicse, you'll welcome be. 

Encountring soon the smoaky Seat, 

The Planter old did thus me greet : 

"Whether you come from Goal or CoUedge, 

You're welcome to my certain Knowledge ; 

And if you please all Night to stay, 

My Son shall put you in the way." 

Which offer I most kindly took. 

And for a Seat did round me look : 

When presently amongst the rest, 



of the body 
of a Popler- 
Tree." 

[" Popular- 
tree " = 
poplar.] 

[Stroul = 
stroll.] 

" Wolves are 
very numer- 
ous in Mary- 
Land." 



" 'Tis sup- 
posed by the 
Planters, that 
all unknown 
Persons are 
run away 
from some 
Master." 



[Goal = jail.] 



114 Later Colonial Life [1708 



[/.e. in pro- 
cess of fer- 
mentation.] 



" Pen is 
Bread made 
of Indtan- 
Corn." 

" Mush is a 
sort of Hasty- 
puddiu[n]g 
made with 
Water and 
Indian 
Flower." 

" Homine is 
a Dish that is 
made of 
boiled Indian 
Wheat, eaten 
with Molos- 
sus, or 
Bacon-Fat." 

" Syder-pap 
is a sort of 
Food made 
of Syder and 
small 

Homine, like 
our Oat- 
meal." 

\_I.e. keg.] 



He plac'd his unknown English Guest, 

Who found them drinking for a whet, 

A Cask of Syder on the Fret, 

Till Supper came upon the Table, 

On which I fed whilst I was able. 

So after hearty Entertainment, 

Of Drink and Victuals without Payment ; 

For Planters Tables, you must know, 

Are free for all that come and go. 

While Pon and Milk, with Mush well stoar'd, 

In wooden Dishes grac'd the Board ; 

With Homine and Syder-pap, 

(Which scarce a hungry Dog wou'd lap) 

Well stuff' d with Fat, from Bacon fry'd, 

Or with Molossus dulcify'd. 

Then out our Landlord pulls a Pouch, 

As greasy as the Leather Couch 

On which he sat, and straight begun, 

To load with Weed his Indian Gun ; 

In length, scarce longer than ones Finger, 

His Pipe smoak'd out with aweful Grace, 
With aspect grave and solemn pace ; 
The reverend Sire walks to a Chest, 
Of all his Furniture the best, 
Closely confin'd within a Room, 
W^hich seldom felt the weight of Broom ; 
From thence he lugs a Cag of Rum, 
And nodding to me, thus begun : 
I find, says he, you don't much care. 
For this our Indian Country Fare ; 
But let me tell you. Friend of mine, 
You may be glad of it in time, 
Tho' now your Stomach is so fine ; 
And if within this Land you stay. 



No. 44] 



Philadelphia 



115 



You'll find it true what I do say. 
This said, the Rundlet up he threw, 
And bending backwards strongly drew : 
I pluck'd as stoutly for my part, 
Altho' it made me sick at Heart, 
And got so soon into my Head 
I scarce cou'd find my way to Bed ; 



Eben[ezer] Cook, The Sot-Weed Factor: or, a Voyage to Mary- 
/3«^ (London, 1708), i-^ passim. 



44. Social Life in Philadelphia (1744) 

Philadelphia, Friday, June ist [1744]. 

THE Sun had run his course in our Hemisphere for the 
space of two hours, before the Leaden Scepter was 
removed from my Eye Lids, at last about a half an hour 
past 6, I had those Instruments of Sight and Doors of the 
Mind laid open, and Jump'd from my Bed in some haste, 
designing before that time to have been at the Market 
Place ; the days of Market are Tuesday and Friday, when 
you may be Supply'd with every Necessary for the Support 
of Life thro'ut [throughout] the whole year, both Extraordi- 
nary Good and reasonably Cheap, it is allow'd by Foreigners 
to be the best of its bigness in the known World, and undoubt- 
edly the largest in America ; I got to this placp by 7 ; and 
had no small Satisfaction in seeing the pretty Creatures, the 
young Ladies, traversing the place from Stall to Stall where 
they cou'd make the best Market, some with their' Maid 
behind them with a Basket to carry home the Purchase, 
Others that were designed to buy but trifles, as a little fresh 
Butter, a Dish of Green Peas, or the like, had Good Nature 



By William 
Black, sec- 
retary of the 
commission- 
ers appointed 
by Governor 
Gooch of 
Virginia to 
unite with 
those of 
Maryland 
and Pennsyl- 
vania, to treat 
with the Iro- 
quois con- 
cerning 
Western 
lands. This 
expedition 
set out in 
May, 1744. 
Black gives 
a pleasant 
picture of the 
social life of 
a well-to-do 
town, and 
illustrates the 
value of a 
contempo- 
rary diary. — 
For social 
life, see 
above. No. 



tt6 Later Colonial Life 



[1744 



32 ; Contem- 
poraries, II, 
ch. xii. 

Bouquet. 

A wealthy 
Irish Quaker. 

Richard 
Peters, secre- 
tary of the 
jjrovince. 

Cinchona 
bark ; the 
predecessor 
of quinine. 



The oldest 
Episco[)al 
church in 
Hhiladelphia, 
founded 
about 1695. 
The present 
church build- 
ing was be- 
gun in 1729. 



Thomas Lee 
and William 
Beverley 
were the 
other mem- 
bers of the 
Virginia 
commission, 
and the other 
gentlemen 
mentioned 
made up 
their " levee," 
or following. 
Hamilton 
was son of the 
famous law- 
yer, Andrew 
Hamilton. 



and Humility enough to be their own Porters . . . after 
I had made my Market, which was One penny worth of 
Whey and a Nose Gay, I Disengag'd myself from the Multi- 
tude, and made the best of my way to Mr. Strettell's where 
I Breakfasted . . . 

[June 3.] Rose at 7, took several turns in the Garden 
with Mr. Peters & Bob Brooks, afterwards I went to Mr. 
Strettells ; found Colonel Lee not well, having Intermitting 
Fevers, for which he Resol'd [resolved] to take the Bark ; 
after Breakfast I return'd to my Room and Dress'd, and in 
Company with Mr. Secretary, Col. Beverley, and some more 
of our Gang, I went to Christ's Church, where I heard a 
very Good Discourse on the Words in the 19 Ch. of Mat- 
thew and 46 Verse. This Church is a very Stately Building, 
but is not yet Finished. The Paintings of the Altar Piece 
will, when done, be very Grand ; two Rows of Corinthian 
Pillars, and Arches turn'd from the one to the other Sup- 
ports the Roof and the Galleries, the Peughs [pews] and 
Boxes were not all done so that everything seem'd half 
finished. I was not a little Surpris'd to see such a Number 
of Fine Women in one Church, as I never had heard Phila- 
delphia noted Extraordinary that way ; but I must say, 
since I have been in America, I have not seen so fine a 
Collection at one titne and Place. After this Congregation 
was Dismiss'd, Colonel Taylor, Mr. Lewis, &c., of the Levee 
went to the Commissioners' Lodgings, where we found 
Colonel Lee ready to go to Mr. Andrew Hamilton's where 
we were Invited to Dine this Day ; about a Quarter after 
I O'clock we had Dinner, and I do assure you a very fine 
one, but as I am not able to draw up a Bill of Fare, I shall 
only say, that we had very near 18 Dish of Meat, besides 
a very nice Collation ; after this was over, it was time for to 
think of going to Church for Afternoon, accordingly, most 
of our young Company with my Self, went in order to Visit 
the Reverend Mr. Gilbert Tennant, a Disciple of the Great 



No. 45] 



New York 



117 



Whitefield, whose followers are Call'd the New Lights ; we For White- 
found him Delivering his Doctrine with a very Good Grace, fb^'^v'/*^^ 
Split his Text as Judiciously, turn'd up the Whites of his No. 42. 
Eyes as Theologically, Cuff'd his Cushion as Orthodoxly, 
and twist'd his Band as Primitively as his Master Whitefield 
cou[l]d have done, had he been there himself; We were 
not Converts enough to hear him to an end, but withdrew 
very Circumspectly, and bent our Course to the Quaker 
Meeting, where we found one of the Travelling Friends, For Quakers, 
Labouring Under the Spirit very Powerfully, had he been no. 30. ' 
a little more Calm, and not hurried himself so on, as if he 
had not half time to say what he had in his Mind, We as 
well as the Rest of his Brethern, wou[l]d have received 
more Instruction, but one Sentence came so fast treading 
on the heels of Another, that I was in great pain of his 
Choaking : however, we had Patience to hear him out, and 
after a little Pause he gave us a Short Prayer, and then 
Struck hands with two Elderly Friends on his Right and 
Left, and we broke up . . . 

Journal of William Black, 1744; edited by R. Alonzo Brock, 
in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Phila- 
delphia, 1877), I, 405-412 /«^jm. 

No. 45 is by 

♦ Professor 

Peter 
Kalm. — 
For Kalm, 
see above, 
No. 38. —For 
New York in 
the eigh- 
teenth cen- 
tury, see Con- 
temporaries, 
II, No. 32. 

" Forty 
seven," mis- 
print tor 
" seventy- 
four." 



45. The Town of New York (1748) 

NEW YORK, the capital of a province of the same 
name is situated under forty deg. and forty min. 
north lat. and forty seven deg. and four min. of western long, 
from London ; and is about ninety seven English miles dis- 
tant from Philadelphia. The situation of it is extremely ad- 
vantageous for trade : for the town stands upon a point which 
is formed by two bays ; into one of which the river Hi/dsofi 



ii8 Later Colonial Life 



[1748 



Populations 
were about 
as follows : 
Boston, 
18,000; 
Philadelphia, 
13,000; 
New York, 
12,000. 



" Hangings" 
= wall-paper. 



discharges itself, not far from the town ; New York is there- 
fore on three sides surrounded with water : the ground it 
is built on, is level in some parts, and hilly in others : the 
place is generally reckoned very wholesome. . . . 

... in size it comes nearest to Boston and Philadelphia. 
But with regard to its fine buildings, its opulence, and exten- 
sive commerce, it disputes the preference with them : at pres- 
ent it is about half as big again as Gothcnbtirgh in Sweden. 

The streets do not run so straight as those of Philadel- 
phia, and have sometimes considerable bendings : however 
they are very spacious and well built, and most of them are 
paved, except in high places, where it has been found use- 
less. In the chief streets there are trees planted, which in 
summer give them a fine appearance, and during the exces- 
sive heat at that time, afford a cooling shade : T found it 
extremely pleasant to walk in the town, for it seemed quite 
like a garden . . . 

Most of the houses are built of bricks ; and are generally 
strong and neat, and several stories high. Some had, ac- 
cording to old architecture, turned the gable-end towards 
the streets ; but the new houses were altered in this respect. 
Many of the houses had a balcony on the roof, on which 
the people used to sit in the evenings in the summer sea- 
son ; and from thence they had a pleasant view of a great 
part of the town, and likewise of part of the adjacent water 
and of the opposite shore. The roofs are commonly cov- 
ered with tiles or shingles . . . The walls were white- 
washed within, and I did not any where see hangings, with 
which the people in this country seem in general to be but 
little acquainted. The walls were quite covered with all 
sorts of drawings and pictures in small frames. On each 
side of the chimnies they had usually a sort of alcove : and 
the wall under the window-s was wainscoted, and had benches 
placed near it. The alcoves, and all the wood work were 
painted with a bluish grey colour. 



No. 46] 



New York 



19 



There are several churches in the town, which deserve 
some attention, i. The English Church, built in the year 
1695, at the west end of [the] town, consisting of stone, and 
has a steeple with a bell. 2. The new Dutch Church, which 
is likewise built of stone, is pretty large and is provided 
with a steeple, it also has a clock, which is the only one in 
the town. .... 

Towards the sea, on the extremity of the promontory is 
a pretty good fortress, called Fort George, which entirely 
commands the port, and can defend the town, at least from 
a sudden attack on the sea side. Besides that, it is likewise 
secured on the north or towards the shore, by a pallisade, 
which however (as for a considerable time the people have 
had nothing to fear from an enemy) is in many places in a 
very bad state of defence. 

There is no good water to be met with in the town itself, 
but at a little distance there is a large spring of good water, 
which the inhabitants take for their tea, and for the uses of 
the kitchen. Those however, who are less delicate in this 
point, make use of the water from the wells in town, though 
it be very bad. This want of good water lies heavy upon 
the horses of the strangers that come to this place ; for they 
do not like to drink the water from the wells in the town. 

Peter Kalm, Travels into North America (translated by John 
Reinhold Forster, Warrington, 1770), I, 247-252 ^^jj/w. 



Trinity 
Church. 



Fort Am- 
sterdam 
under the 
Dutch ; in 
1664 called 
Fort James ; 
in 1674, 
Fort George ; 
demolished 
at the close 
of the Revo- 
lution. 



46. A Southern Criticism of Slavery (1736) 

YOUR Lord"' [Lordship's] opinion concerning 
Rum and Negros is certainly very just, and 
your excludeing both of them from your Colony of Georgia 
will be very happy ; tho' with Respect to Rum, the Saints 
of New England I fear will find out some trick to evade 



By Colonel 
William 
Byrd (1674- 
1744). Byrd, 
receiver- 
general of 
Virginia, 
member of 
the council, 
agent for the 
colony in 
England, 
and founder 



I20 Later Colonial Life 



[1736 



of Rich- 
mond, was 
one of the 
most culti- 
vated and 
influential 
men of his 
time. The 
extract given 
is from a let- 
ter written in 
1736 to the 
Earl of Eg- 
mont, first 
president of 
the trustees 
for Georgia. 
It presents a 
most sane 
and just esti- 
mate of 
the conse- 
quences of 
slavery, by a 
slave-holder 
and keen 
buyer of 
slaves. It is 
an excellent 
example of 
the value of 
unrestrained 
private let- 
ters as his- 
torical 
evidence. — 
For Byrd, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, No. 
82. — For 
slavery, see 
above. No. 
35 ; Contem- 
poraries, I, 
Nos. 70, 86, 
87; Il.ch.xvi. 

Byrd was an 
Episcopalian 
and a Cava- 
lier. 

Importation 
of slaves 
began in 
1619. 



your Act of Parliament. They have a great dexterity at 
paUiating a perjury so well as to leave no taste of it in the 
mouth, nor can any people like them slip through a penal 
statute. They will give some other Name to their Rum, 
which they may safely do, because it go[e]s by that of Kill- 
Devil in this country from its banefull qualitys. A watchfull 
Eye must be kept on these foul Traders or all the precau- 
tions of the Trustees will be in vain. 

I wish my Lord we cou[l]d be blesst with the same Pro- 
hibition. They import so many Negros hither, that I fear 
this Colony will some time or other be confirmd by the 
Name of New Guinea. I am sensible of many bad conse- 
quences of multiplying these Ethiopians amongst us. They 
blow up the pride, and ruin the Industry of our White Peo- 
ple, who se[e]ing a Rank of poor Creatures below them, 
detest work for fear it shou[l]d make them look like Slaves. 
Then that poverty which will ever attend upon Idleness, 
disposes them as much to pilfer as it do[e]s the Portuguese, 
who account it much more like a Gentleman to steal, than 
to dirty their hands with Labour of any kind. 

Another unhappy Effect of Many Negros is the necessity 
of being severe. Numbers make them insolent, and then 
foul Means must do what fair will not. We have however 
nothing like the Inhumanity here that is practiced in the 
Islands, and God forbid we ever shou[l]d. But these base 
Tempers require to be rid [den] with a tort [taut] Rein, or 
they will be apt to throw their Rider. Yet even this is ter- 
rible to a good natur[e]d Man, who must submit to be 
either a Fool or a Fury. And this will be more our unhappy 
case, the more Negros are increast amongst us. 

But these private mischeifs are nothing if compar[e]d to 
the publick danger. We have already at least 10,000 Men 
of these descendants of Ham fit to bear Arms, and their 
Numbers increase every day as well by birth as Importation. 
And in case there shoud arise a Man of desperate courage 



No. 46] 



Slavery 



121 



amongst us, exasperated by a desperate fortune, he might 
with more advantage than Catahne kindle a Servile War. 
Such a man might be dreadfully mischeivous before any 
opposition could be formd against him, and tinge our Rivers 
as wide as they are with blood, besides the Calamitys which 
wou[l]d be brought upon us by such an Attempt, it woud 
cost our Mother Country many a fair Million to make us as 
profitable as we are at present. 

It were therefore worth the consideration of a British 
Parliament, My Lord, to put an end to this unchristian 
Traffick of makeing Merchandize of Our Fellow Creatures. 
At least the farthar Importation of them into our Our 
Colonys shoud be prohibited lest they prove as trouble- 
some and dangerous everywhere, as they have been lately 
in Jamaica, where besides a vast expence of Mony, they 
have cost the lives of many of his Majesty's Subjects. We 
have mountains in Virginia too, to which they may retire as 
safely, and do as much mischeif as they do in Jamaica. All 
these matters duly consider [e]d, I wonder the Legislature 
will Indulge a few ravenous Traders to the danger of the 
Publick safety, and such Traders as woud freely sell their 
Fathers, their Elder Brothers, and even the Wives of their 
bosomes, if they coud black their faces and get anything 
by them. 

I entirely agree with your Lord^ in the Detestation you 
seem to have for that DiaboUcal Liquor Rum, which dos 
more mischeif to Peoples Industry and morals than any thing 
except Gin and the Pope. And if it were not a little too 
Poetical, I shoud fancy, as the Gods of Old were said to 
quaff Nectar, so the Devils are fobbd off with Rijmm. 
Tho' my Dear Country Men woud think this unsavory Spirit 
much too Good for Devils, because they are fonder of it than 
they are of their Wives and Children . . . 



For laws 
against ne- 
groes, see 
above, No. 
35- 



On the con- 
trary, the 
Enghsh gov- 
ernment can- 
celled all 
colonial stat- 
utes limiting 
or taxing the 
trade. 



See below, 
No. 112, 
for John 
Brown's raid, 



Fobb'd = 
tricked. 



American Historical Review (New York, etc., 1896), I, 88-90. 



12 2 Later Colonial Life [1760-1766 



By Alex- 
ander 

GliAYDON 

(1752-1818), 

author, law- 
yer, and for 
a time cap- 
tain in the 
continental 
army. His 
memoirs are 
a most inter- 
esting com- 
mentary on 
the times in 
which he 
lived. The 
piece is a 
good exam- 
ple of remi- 
niscences 
written late 
in life, in 
which details 
are of little 
weight but 
the general 
impression 
is accurate. 
— For intel- 
lectual life in 
the colonies, 
see Contem- 
poraries, I, 
Nos. 89, 137, 
146, 171; II, 
eh. xiv. 



47. A Colonial School-Boy (1760— 1766) 

BEING now, probably, about eight years of age, it was 
deemed expedient to enter me at the academy, then, 
as it now continues to be, under the name of a university, 
the principal seminary in Pennsylvania ; and I was accord- 
ingly introduced by my father, to Mr. Kinnesley, the teacher 
of English and professor of oratory. . . . The task, of the 
younger boys, at least, consisted in learning to read and to 
write their mother tongue grammatically ; and one day in 
the week (I think Friday) was set apart for the recitation 
of select passages in poetry and prose. For this purpose, 
each scholar, in his turn, ascended the stage, and said his 
speech, as the phrase was. This speech was carefully taught 
him by his master, both with respect to its pronunciation, 
and the action deemed suitable to its several parts. . . . 
More profit attended my reading. After ^sop's fables, and 
an abridgment of the Roman history, Telemachus was put 
into our hands ; and if it be admitted that the human heart 
may be bettered by instruction, mine, I may aver, was bene- 
fited by this work of the virtuous Fenelon. . . . 

... A few days after I had been put under the care of 
Mr. Kinnersley, I was told by my class mates, that it was neces- 
sary for me to fight a battle with some one, in order to estab- 
lish my claim to the honor of being an academy boy. . . . 
I found that the lists were appointed, and that a certain John 
Appowen, a lad who, though not quite so tall, [was] yet 
better set and older than myself, was pitted against me. . . , 
A combat immediately ensued between Appowen and my- 
self, which for some time, was maintained on each side, with 
equal vigor and determination, when unluckily, I received 
his fist directly in my gullet. The blow for a time depriving 
me of breath and the power of resistance, victory declared 
for my adversary, though not without the acknowledgment 



No. 47] 



School-Life 123 



of the party, that I had at last behaved well, and shewn 
myself not unworthy of the name of an academy boy. . . . 

I have said that I was about to enter the Latin school. 
The person whose pupil I was consequently to become, was 
Mr. John Beveridge, a native of Scotland, who retained the 
smack of his vernacular tongue in its primitive purity. His 
acquaintance with the language he taught, was I believe, 
justly deemed to be very accurate and profound. But as to 
his other acquirements, after excepting the game of back- ' 

gammon, in which he was said to excel, truth will not war- 
rant me in saying a great deal. He was, however, diligent 
and laborious in his attention to his school ; and had he 
possessed the faculty of making himself beloved by the 
scholars, and of exciting their emulation and exertion, noth- 
ing would have been wanting in him to an entire qualifica- 
tion for his office. But unfortunately, he had no dignity 
of character, and was no less destitute of the art of making 
himself respected than beloved. Though not perhaps to be 
complained of as intolerably severe, he yet made a pretty Flogging was 
free use of the ratan and the ferule, but to very little pur- JJ]sdpirJiT?n 
pose. . . . 

... as my evil star would have it, I was thoroughly tired 
of books and confinement, and her [his mother's] advice and 
even entreaties were overruled by my extreme repugnance 
to a longer continuance in the college, which, to my lasting 
regret, I bid adieu to when a Httle turned of fourteen, at the 
very season when the minds of the studious begin to profit 
by instruction. We were at this time reading Horace and 
Cicero, having passed through Ovid, Virgil, Caesar and Sal- 
lust, . . . 

[Alexander Graydon] Memoirs of a Life, chiefy passed in Penn- 
sylvania (Harrisburg, 1811), 16-31 passim. 



schools. 



By James 
Earl of 
Stanhope 
{1673-1721). 
Stanhope 
was English 
secretary of 
state for the 
Southern 
Department 
most of the 
time from 
1714 till his 
death, and 
head of the 
colonies from 
17 1 8. The 
year after he 
became sec- 
retary he re- 
ferred to the 
Lords of 
Trade a 
scheme or 
treatise relat- 
ing to the 
plantations, 
i.e. colonies, 
of which the 
extract here 
given forms a 
part. The 
piece is a 
good ex- 
ample of 
official rec- 
ords as a 
source of 
historical 
knowledge. 
— For prin- 
ciples of 
English con- 
trol, see Con- 
temporaries, 

I, ch. vii ; 

II, ch. vii. 



CHAPTER VIII— COLONIAL GOVERN- 
MENT 

48. The English Council for Trade and 
Plantations (171 5) 

THE Board was erected about fifteen Years since, as has 
bin before observed. By their Commission they are 
directed to enquire into the severall obstructions of Trade, 
and the means of removing the same And particularly to 
inform themselves of the condition of the respective Planta- 
tions, as well with regard to the Government and administra- 
tion of Justice in those places, as the Commerce thereof. 
And to consider how the Collonys there may be eased, and 
secured, and rendered more beneficial to England. To look 
into Governors Instructions, and see what is fit to be added 
omitted or changed in them. To take an account yearly by 
way of Journal of the administrations of such Governments. 
To hear Complaints of oppressions and Male-Adminis- 
trations from the Plantations. To examine into and weigh 
such Acts as shall be passed in the Plantation Assemblys, 
and to consider whether they are fit for his Majesty to 
consent to, and establish for Laws. And upon these and 
severall other heads to make representations to his Majesty 
of such regulations as are fit to be made in the Plantations. 
As by a Copy of the said Commission will more fully appear. 
If this power had bin always vested in persons of knowl- 
edge and Integrity, to whom the plantation Affairs were well 
known and [who were] unanimous in the design of pro- 
moting the publick service only, it might have produced 
much good. But there having bin many persons at severall 

124 



No. 48] 



Lords of Trade 



25 



times put into that Commission for different reasons then 
[than] their ability to discharge such a trust (as is well 
known) it has not hitherto produced such effects as might 
be expected from it. And it was impossible that Board 
should make a right Judgment of wrongs, oppressions, and 
Male administrations, and of Acts, sent from the Plantations 
to be passed into Laws, or be able to represent what regula- 
tions were fit to be made in the Governments, and adminis- 
tration of Justice, unless some at that Board had a perfect 
and personal knowledge of the nature of the Plantations, 
and of the people, as likewise of their different Laws and 
Constitutions. 

Many instances might be here given of many incredible 
things done, and omitted by that Board, but since the design 
of this is not to reflect on past miscarriages but to prevent 
the like for the future, and since there is now reason to 
expect from his Majesty's Wisdom, and the Justice and 
prudence of his ministers that the said Councill will be in a 
short time better filled, two instances need only be now 
mentioned. 

They are by the said Commission directed to examine and 
look into the usual Instructions given to Governors, and to 
see if anything may be added, omitted or changed therein 
to advantage. As likewise to consider what trades are taken 
up and exercised in the Plantations which are or may be 
prejudicial to England. They have accordingly had the 
consideration and setling of all such Instructions, in which 
nevertheless a clause has bin constantly incerted command- 
ing Governors to endeavour, and encourage the setting of 
Workhouses to set the poor at work, and many Manufactures 
are made in the CoUonys on the Continent of America, which 
encrease daily, so that in time they may supply our Sugar 
Collonys, as well as themselves with things that make a great 
part of our British Trade, to our great prejudice, and con- 
trary to the Pollicy of all other Nations. 



" Board of 
Commission- 
ers for Trade 
and Planta- 
tions," usu- 
ally called 
" Lords of 
Trade." 



In the in- 
structions the 
home gov- 
ernment laid 
down its 
colonial 
policy. 

The English 
government 
applied a 
policy pro- 
tective to 
English 
manufactur- 
ers. 



On instruc- 
tions, see 
below, 
No. 51. 



126 Colonial Government [1765 

They likewise continue the aforesaid Instructions against 
Appeals, and have bin so far from advising a change thereof, 
that about thirteen Years since, when on the Petition of many 
Merchants, and Planters about it, a Committee of the Privy 
Council made a report that it should be altered ; the then 
Board of Trade made an Interest to have it referred back to 
them, and on their report it has bin continued. 

William A. Whitehead, editor. Documents relating to the Colonial 
History of the State of New Jersey (Newark, 1882), IV, 358-360. 



By Samuel 

PURVIANCE, 

Jr., of Phila- 
delphia, in a 
confidential 
letter to 
Colonel 
Burd, who 
was in the 
provincial 
service. The 
letter gives a 
graphic pic- 
ture of the 
methods of a 
colonial poli- 
tician, adroit 
in elec- 
tioneering 
tactics. 
Franklin (see 
below, No. 
51) was 
regarded as 
an enemy by 
the faction to 
which Purvi- 
ance and 
Burd be- 
longed, be- 
cause, by his 
resistance to 
the policy of 
exempting 
the proprie- 
tary estates 



49. How to Manage Elections (1765) 



I 



WENT lately up to Bucks Court, in order to 
concert measures for their \J.e. some friends'] 
election, in pursuance of which we have appointed a consider- 
able meeting of the Germans, Baptists and Presbyterians, to 
be held next Monday at Neshaminy, where some of us, some 
Germans and Baptists of this place, have appointed to attend, 
in order to attempt a general confederacy of the three socie- 
ties in opposition to the ruling party. We have sent up emis- 
saries among the Germans, which I hope will bring them into 
this measure, and if it can be affected, will give us a great 
chance for carrying matters in that county. Could that be 
carried, it would infaUibly secure our friends a majority in the 
House, and consequently enable them to recal our dangerous 
enemy, Franklin, with his petitions, which is the great object 
we have now in view, and which should engage the endeavors 
of all our friends at the approaching election to make a spirited 
push for a majority in the Assembly, without which all our 
struggles here will prove of little service to the public interest. 
. . . If you knew thoroughly the methods Mr. Franklin is 
taking at home to blacken and stigmatise our society, you 



No. 49] 



Elections 



27 



would perhaps judge with me that you never had more reason 
to exert yourselves in order to overset him, which we can only 
do by commanding a majority in the Assembly. I have seen 
a letter lately from a person of character, that advises [us of] 
his wicked designs against us. The little hopes of success, 
as well as the difficulty of engaging proper persons for the 
purpose, has discouraged me from attempting a project rec- 
ommended by some friends, of sending up some Germans 
to work upon their countrymen. But that no probable 
means may fail, [I] have sent up some copies of a piece 
lately printed by Sowers, of Germantown, to be dispersed, 
and which may possibly have some effect. . . . 

As I understand the Mennonists have certainly resolved 
to turn out Isaac Saunders this year, though the only good 
member your county has, I would beg leave to offer to you 
and other friends the following scheme, as the only probable 
chance, I think, you have to carry the election and keep Mr. 
Saunders. If the scheme is properly executed, and can 
be conducted without danger of a riot, I think you could 
infallibly carry your ticket by it. 

Don't attempt to change any of your members save Webb. 
If you can run Dr. Kuhn, or any other popular German, and 
can keep Mr. Saunders, you will do great things. As soon 
as your ticket is agreed on, let it be spread through the 
country, that your party intend to come well armed to the 
election, and that you intend, if there's the least partiality in 
either sheriff, inspectors, or managers of the election, that 
you will thrash the sheriff, every inspector, Quaker and 
Mennonist to a jelly ; and further, I would report it, that 
not a Mennonist nor German should be admitted to give 
in a ticket without being sworn that he is naturahzed and 
worth ;j^5o, and that he has not voted already ; and further, 
that if you discovered any person attempting to give in a 
vote without being naturahzed, or voting twice, you would 
that moment deliver him up to the mob to chastise him. 



from taxa- 
tion, he had 
incurred the 
hostility of 
the proprie- 
tor. — For 
politics in 
Pennsylva- 
nia, see Con- 
temporaries, 
II, Nos. 31, 
61. — For 
colonial 
government, 
see Contem- 
poraries, It 
Part III, 

" Bucks 
Court," 
county seat 
of Bucks 
County. 

Franklin was 
agent in 
England for 
Pennsylvania 
and other 
colonies. 

For Menno- 
nists, see 
above, 
No. 16. 



Riots were 
very frequent 
in colonial 
times. — See 
Co7itempora- 
ries, II, 
No. 30. 



128 Colonial Government [1748 

Let this report be industriously spread before the election, 
which will certainly keep great numbers of the Mennonists 
at home. I would at the same time have all our friends 
warned to put on a bold face, to be every man provided with 
a good shillelah [cudgel], as if determined to put their 
threats in execution, though at the same time let them be 
solemnly charged to keep the greatest order and peace. 
Let our friends choose about two dozen of the most repu- 
table men, magistrates, &c., who shall attend the inspectors, 
sheriff and clerks during the whole election, to mount guard 
half at a time, and relieve one another in spells, to prevent 
all cheating and administer the oath to every suspicious 
person, and to commit to immediate punishment every one 
who offers to vote twice. I'll engage, if you conduct the 
election in that manner, and our people turn out with spirit, 
you can't fail of carrying every man on your ticket, as I am 
well assured not a third of the Mennonists are naturalized. 
I would submit this to your consideration. If it's well 
thought of, take your measures immediately. I beg no 
mention may be made of the author of this. I see no danger 
in the scheme but that of a riot, which would require great 
prudence to avoid. 

[Thomas Balch, editor,] Letters and Papers relating chiefly to the 
Provincial History of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1855), 209- 
212 passim. 



By Profes- 
sor Pkter 
Kalm. — 
For Kalm, 
see above, 
No. 38.— 
Disputes be- 
tween the 
governors 
and assem- 
blies, alluded 
to in the 



50. The Governor and Assembly in New 
York (1748) 

AN assembly of deputies from all the particular districts 
of the province of New York, is held at New York 
once or twice every year. It may be looked upon as a par- 
liament or dyet [diet] in miniature. Every thing relating 



No. 50] 



Assemblies 



29 



to the good of the province is here debated. The governor 
calls the assembly, and dissolves it at pleasure : this is a 
power which he ought only to make use of, either when no 
farther debates are necessary, or when the members are not 
so unanimous in the service of their king and country as is 
their duty : it frequently however happens, that, led aside 
by caprice or by interested views, he exerts it to the preju- 
dice of the province. The colony has sometimes had a 
governor, whose quarrels with the inhabitants, have induced 
their representatives, or the members of the assembly, 
through a spirit of revenge, to oppose indifferently every 
thing he proposed, whether it was beneficial to the country 
or not. In such cases the governor has made use of his 
power ; dissolving the assembly, and calling another soon 
after, which however he again dissolved upon the least mark 
of their ill humour. By this means he so much tired them, 
by the many expences which they were forced to bear in so 
short a time, that they were at last glad to unite with him, 
in his endeavours for the good of the province. But there 
have likewise been governors who have called assemblies 
and dissolved them soon after, merely because the represen- 
tatives did not act according to their whims, or would not 
give their assent to proposals which were perhaps dangerous 
or hurtful to the common welfare. 

The king appoints the governor according to his royal 
pleasure ; but the inhabitants of the province make up his 
excellency's salary. Therefore a man entrusted with this 
place has greater or lesser revenues, according as he knows 
how to gain the confidence of the inhabitants. There are 
examples of governors in this, and other provinces oi North 
America, who by their dissensions with the inhabitants of 
their respective governments, have lost their whole salary, 
his Majesty having no power to make them [the inhabitants] 
pay it. If a governor had no other resource in these cir- 
cumstances, he would be obliged either to resign his ol^ce. 



piece, were 
common in 
almost every 
colony ; and 
the control 
of the gov- 
ernor's salary 
was an im- 
portant 
weapon in 
the liands of 
the repre- 
sentatives of 
the people. — 
For colonial 
governors 
and assem- 
blies, see 
Contempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
68, 71, 80, 98, 
102, 104, 106, 
107, III, 120, 
122, 131, 136, 
144; II, chs. 
viii, ix. 



130 Colonial Government [1748 



This was 
practically 
a license 
system. 



Examples of 
colonial laws 
are in No. 35, 
above, and 
American 
History 
Studies, 
No. I. 



or to be content with an income too small for his dignity ; 
or else to conform himself in every thing to the inclinations 
of the inhabitants : but there are several stated profits, 
which in some measure make up for this. i. No one is 
allowed to keep a public house without the governor's leave ; 
which is only to be obtained by the payment of a certain 
fee, according to the circumstances of the person. Some 
governors therefore, when the inhabitants refused to pay 
them a salary, have hit upon the expedient of doubling the 
number of inns in their province. 2. Few people who 
intend to be married, unless they be very poor, will have 
their banns published from the pulpit ; but instead of this 
they get licences from the governor, which impower any 
minister to marry them. Now for such a licence the gov- 
ernor receives about half a guinea, and this collected 
throughout the whole province, amounts to a considerable 
sum. 3. The governor signs all passports, and especially 
of such as go to sea ; and this gives him another means of 
supplying his expences. There are several other advan- 
tages allowed to him, but as they are very trifling, I shall 
omit them. 

At the above assembly the old laws are reviewed and 
amended, and new ones are made : and the regulation and 
circulation of coin, together with all other affairs of that 
kind are there determined. For it is to be observed that 
each English colony in North America is independent of 
the other, and that each has its proper laws and coin, and 
may be looked upon in several lights, as a state by itself. 
From hence it happens, that in time of war, things go on 
very slowly and irregularly here : for . . . the sense of 
one province is sometimes directly opposite to that of 
another . . . 



Peter Kalm, Travels 211(0 North America (translated by John 
Reinhold Forster, Warrington, 1770), I, 259-262 ^ai'J/w. 



No. 51] 



Instructions 



131 



51. Objections to Governing of Colonies 
by Instructions (1772) 

THE governing of colonies by instruction has long been 
a favorite point with ministers here. About thirty 
years since, in a bill brought into Parliament relating to 
America, they inserted a clause to make the King's instruc- 
tions laws in the colonies, which, being opposed by the then 
agents, was thrown out. And I well remember a conversa- 
tion with Lord Granville, soon after my arrival here, in which 
he expressed himself on that subject in the following terms. 
" Your American Assemblies slight the King's instructions, 
pretending that they are riot laws. The instructions sent 
over to your governors are not like the pocket instructions 
given to ambassadors, to be observed at their discretion, as 
circumstances may require. They are drawn up by grave 
men, learned in the laws and constitutions of the realm ; 
they are brought into Council, thoroughly weighed, well con- 
sidered, and amended if necessary, by the wisdom of that 
body ; and, when received by the governors, they are the 
laws of the land ; for the King is the legislator of the 
colonies^ 

I remember this the better, because, being a new doc- 
trine to me, I put it down as soon as I returned to my lodg- 
ings. To be sure, if a governor thinks himself obliged to 
obey all instructions, whether consistent or inconsistent with 
the constitution, laws, and rights of the country he governs, 
and can proceed to govern in that train, there is an end of 
the constitution, and those rights are aboHshed. But I won- 
der, that any honest gentleman can think there is honor in 
being a governor on such terms. And I think the practice 
cannot possibly continue, especially if opposed with spirit 
by our Assemblies. At present no attention is paid by the 
American ministers to any agent here, whose appointment 



By Agent 
Benjamin 
Franklin 
(1706-1790), 
philosopher 
and states- 
man, noted 
for his earnest 
and fruitful 
endeavors in 
the cause of 
American 
indepen- 
dence. In 
1772 he was 
agent in Eng- 
land for 
several of the 
colonies. 
The extract 
is from a pri- 
vate letter to 
James Bow- 
doin, of Mas- 
sachusetts. 
The " in- 
structions," 
issued pri- 
vately to 
each new 
governor for 
his personal 
guidance, 
sometimes 
conflicted 
with the 
charters or 
customs of 
the colonies; 
and the 
attempt to 
make them a 
basis of gov- 
ernment was 
one of the 
hotly con- 
tested points 
of the pre- 
Revoludon- 
ary period. — 
For Franklin, 
see Old South. 
Leafiets, 
No. 9; Amer- 
ican History 



Leaflets, No. 
14 ; Contem- 
poraries, II, 
Nos. 68,81, 

94. 133. 143. 
199, 217. — 
For instruc- 
tions, see 
above. No. 
48 ; Contem- 
poraries, II, 
Nos. 53, 55. 



132 Colonial Government [1729 

is not ratified by the governor's assent ; and, if this is 
persisted in, you can have none to serve you in a pubUc 
character, that do not render themselves agreeable to these 
ministers, and those otherwise appointed can only promote 
your interests by conversation, as private gentlemen or by 
writing. 

Benjamin Franklin, Works (edited by Jared Sparks, Boston, 
1838), VII, 549-55°- 



From the 
Boston 
Town Rec- 
ords. This 
extract will 
serve to indi- 
cate the 
manifold 
functions of 
that impor- 
tant unit of 
New Eng- 
land life, the 
town-meet- 
ing, and also 
to show the 
interest and 
value of local 
records as 
historical 
material. — 
For colonial 
local gov- 
ernment, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, ch. 
xi ; for re- 
ports of town- 
meetings. 
Contempora- 
ries, I, Nos. 
98, 165; II, 
Nos. 78, 140. 

Town-meet- 
ings had tobe 
summoned 
by warrant, 



52. A Colonial Town- Meeting (1729) 

AT a Meeting of the Freeholders & Other Inhabitants of 
the Town of Boston Duly Qualified being Regulerly 
Assembled in a Publick Town meeting at the Town House 
Tuesday May the 6"" 1729 — 

After Prayer by the Rev" m'' Thomas Prince Elisha 
Cooke Esq' Chose Moderator for this Meeting 

Sundry Petitions Read Viz' 

About a place for the Grainery 

About m"" Peleg Wiswalls Sallary 

About m' Edward Mills Sallary 

m'' Sam" Oakes Petition 

m"" Jera [Jeremiah] Condys Petition 

The Selectmens Report of Sundry things left to them 

Voted to Chuse 4 Representatives 



The Number of Voters were 

Elisha Cooke Esq'' 
m' Thomas Cushing - 
m'' Ezek" Lewis - 
m' Sam" Welles - 



votes 
188 
190 
190 
184 



192 



Chose Representatives 



No. 52] Town-Meeting 133 

Voted To Chuse a Comittee to Prepare Instructions for stating the 
the Representatives for their Acting at the General Court ^^ discussed. 
at their Approching Session, And to Lay them befor the 
Meeting in the Afternoon — 

Voted : That John Alford Esq' mes" Henry Bering & 
Nath" Cunnigham be the Said Committee — 

On the Petition of Sundry Inhabitants about the Situatian 
of the Grainery 

Voted That m"" Moderator & the Selectmen be Joyned with Holding of 
the Comittee appointed for Building the Grainery, Be desired ^as'regaKi^ed 
to View the Place, And make Return of their Opinion thereof as a duty 
to the Meeting after Dinner this Day — pHvfiege.'and 

service was 

Chosen Assessors, unless a 



m"" John Jeffers Excus'd \ ^^ ^ obligatory 

s'd) " """ 



m' Thomas Moffat Excus'^ , g^^^ ^^^^3^ 

could be 

Edward Maycomb - Sworn ") offered. 

John Spooner - - Sworn > Clerks of the Market. 
Nathan" Cobbit - Sworn ) 

Post Meridiem. 

Voted That the Grainery be Erected and Set up Rainging 
with the Line of the Burying place on the Comon fronting 
Eastward, The Said Building to be not Less then [than] 
forty feet distant from the Sout[h] Corner of the Brick wall 
of the Burying place — 

m"" James Pemberton - Pay ") Pay = paid 

_ T T17 i o ( Assessors. his fine for 

m"^ James Watson - Sworn ) refusing to 

serve. 

Inasmuch as the Gramer School at the North End of A"gramer 
the Town of which m"" Peleg^ Wiswall is the Master is much ^''1,°°;^' "^^^ 
Increaced in the Number of the Schollers, and that no Usher school, 
is alowed to assist him in his School : 

Voted That there be an Additian of Forty Pounds to the 
Said m"" VViswalls Salary — 

Sam" Oakes Petition Read & Dismist — 



134 Colonial Government [1729 



Crooked. 



Writing 
schools were 
lower 
schools. 
The New 
England 
school com- 
mittees 
sprang out of 
these special 
visiting com- 
mittees. 



In Answar to m' Edward Mills His Petitian. 

Voted That there be an Addition of Twenty Pounds to 
the Said m"" Edward Mills Sallary — 

Upon A Motion made by Elisha Cook Esq'' That the Divid- 
ing Line between the Towns Land in the Occupation of 
m"" Nathan" Williams and His Land on the East Side in 
School Street is for want of due Care become Crucked, 
intrenching both upon the One and the Others Land, That 
therfore they would Direct and Imp[o]wer the Selectmen 
to Rectifie that line as to them Seems Just and Equitable — 
And Further That they would be pleased to Accomodate 
him with about two feet of the Front of his Land next 
m^ Williams on Such Terms as the Selectmen Shall Agree for 
with the Said m"" Cooke — 

Read and Voted That it be left with the Selectmen to Act 
therein as they Judge Meet — 

On the Petition of m' Jeraiii Condy for Addition to his 
Salary 

Voted that the Consideration of Said Petition be Referred 
for further Consideration to the Next Town Meeting, and 
That in the mean time Nathan" Green John Alford Esq" & 
m"" Thomas Cushing Jun' are desired to Inspect the Several 
Wrighting Schools within this Town at Such time as they 
Shall think Advisable for the year Currant, And that they do 
in an Espesial Mafier Vizit m' Condys School and Report to 
the Town at their Meeting the Ability and Industry of the 
Said m"" Condy and the Proficiency of the Schollers under 
His Tuition — 

The Comittee this day chosen & Appointed to Prepare 
Instructions for the Representatives, for their Acting at the 
General Court at their Approching Session And to Lay 
[them] before the Meeting in the afternoon — Return as 
Follows : Viz' 

To Elisha Cooke Esq'' Mess''" Thomas Cushing, Ezekiel 
Lewis & Samuel W^elles : — 



No. 52] Town-Meeting 135 

Gentlemen — 

Your known Loyalty to His Present Majesty King George, such instruc- 
and Sincear Atachment to the Successian in the Illustrious "ons vvere a 

usual mnc- 

House of Hannover, Your Hearty Love to this Your native tion of town- 
Country, Your Singuler Value for the Liberty & Propperty ^'^'^""S^- 
of this People, your Chearfull and Una[ni]mous Concurrance 
to promote our Best Intrist, And your Approved Integrity Interest, 
in those Publick Stations wherein you haue bin Employed, 
Haue fixed the Eyes of this Town on and Determined their 
Choice of you as Propper Persons to Represent them in the 
Next General Assembly Wherin they Expect That you 
behaue your Selves with your Wonted Zeal and Courage in 
Prossecuting those good Designes which may tend to the 
Peace & wellfair of these His Majestys Good Subjects, and 
Secure those Rights and Priviledges which by the Royal 
Charter we haue a Just claim to, and as Englishmen do of 
Right appertain to us. And agreable there unto we Recomend 
unto you in an Especial Manner — 

That you Endeavor to Maintain all our Civil Rights & 
Propertys against any Incrochments upon them 

That you Continue to Pay a due Regard to His Excellency 
Our Governor, and that you Endeavor that He may have an 
Honourable Support, But we desire at the Same time That 
you use your utmost Endeavor That the Honourable House Compare 
of Representatives may not be by any means Prevailed upon ^o.^bove.^"' 
or brought into the Fixing a Certain Sallary for any Certain 
time. But that they may Improve their usual freedom in 
granting their Money from time to time, as they Shall Judg 
the Province to be able, and in Such a manner as they Shall 
think most for the Benefit and advantage thereof, And if 
your Pay Should be diverted you may Depend on all the 
Justice Imaginable from this Town whom you Represent : — 

John Alford ^ 

Henry Dering >- Coinittee 

Nath" Cuningham ) 



136 Colonial Government [1729 

The Foregoing Return of the Comitte was Presended[-ted] 
Read Sundry times and 

Voted Approved. 

The Report of the Selectmen upon Several Votes of the 
Town at their Meeting the lo'*' of March 1728 : were Read 
& Considred Viz' 

The Selectmen haue Viewed the Marsh at the Bottom of 
the Comon, and not finding any Material use that can be 
made of it at the present, and Considering the Present Cir- 
comstances of the Town Are of Opinion it is best to ly in 
the Condition it now is. 

Read and the Report Accepted — . . . 

As to the Proposals About Bennet Street — It is thought 
Convenient to be Paved if the Town thinke it Convenient 
to Raise Money for the Doing it at this Meeting. 

Read, and Refer'd for further Consideration to the Next 
March Meeting ... 

As to the Repair of the Wharf at the North Battery — 

It is thought Convenient — That m'' Sam" Clark be Ordered 
to Clear the Wharf And that the Town Ifet it to Some Person 
that may Offer to Repair it And keep it in Repair for A term 
of years as the Selectmen Shall think Advisable 

Read and Voted to be left with the Selectmen — ... 

Voted That a Survey'd Plan be taken by Some Skillfull 
Surveyor or Survey[o]rs of the Lands of this Town belonging 
to the Town. In Order for the Same to be putt upon the 
Towns Records, to Prevent Incroachments on the Towns 
Int[e]rest. 

The Selectmen to take Care that this work be effected — 

Voted That the Sum of Three Hundred Pounds be Raised 
on the Inhabitants and Estates within this Town for Defray- 
ing the Towns Charge and more Espetialy Paving — 

Boston Record Commissioners, /P^/^r/, 1 729-1 742 (Boston, 1885), 
d-f) passim. 



CHAPTER IX — THE REVOLUTION 



53. The Boston Tea-Party (1773) 

FINE moderat Weather continued, till this morning 
[Dec. 19, 1773] som snow & cold & raw with frost. 
Note. The body of the people of Boston and numbers 
from the neighbouring Towns have lately niett at the Old 
South Meeting house (Faneuil Hall, not being so large as 
to contain the people) Supos'd to be from 5 to 6,000, and 
having Several meetings, conserning a Large quantity of Tea 
shipt'd from London by the East India Company Subject to 
a Duty payable in America. This meeting was adjourned 
to the P. m. and after finding all methods failed, with those 
men to whom the Tea was consigned, to send it back from 
whence it came, dissolved their meeting. But Behold what 
followed. A number of Resolute men in less than 3, some 
say 2 hours time, Em[p]tied Every Chest of Tea, on Board 
the 3 Ships Commanded by Captains Hall, Bruce & Coffin, 
into the Sea, amounting to 342 Chests without the least 
damage to the Ships, or other property. This Tea was 
worth 'tis said at least 25,000. ^ sterhng, as a great deal of 
it was green Tea. It was all distroyed, with as little noise 
as perhaps anything of the like nature was ever don in the 
Evening and all over & quiet by 8 O' Clock 

William Tudor, editor, Deacon Tiidor's Diary (Boston, 1896), 
44-45- 



By Deacon 
John 
Tudor 
(about 
1709-1795), 
a Boston 
merchant, 
whose diary 
comprises 
memoranda 
covering the 
years 1732- 
1793. His 
notes are 
especially 
valuable, 
since many 
of the im- 
portant 
events of the 
period were 
either wit- 
nessed or 
participated 
in by the 
deacon or 
his son. — 
For Tudor, 
see Contem- 
poraries, II, 
No. 151. — 
For the Bos- 
ton Tea- 
Party, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, ch. 
xxiv. — For 
causes of the 
Revolution, 
see Am. Hist. 
Studies, No. 
4 ; Contem- 



poraries, II, Part VI. The "Tea-Party" took place D&cember 16; the real issue was 
whether a tax should be collected by English authority in America. 



138 



Revolution 



[1775 



By 

REVEREND 
]OHN 
WlTHER- 
SPOON, 
(I722-I794), 
president of 
Princeton 
College, 
member of 
the Conti- 
nental Con- 
gress, of the 
Board of 
War, and 
signer of the 
Declaration 
of Inde- 
pendence. 
From his 
arrival in the 
country in 
1768 he was 
one of the 
most tireless 
workers in 
the Ameri- 
can cause, 
and he was 
very useful 
in bringing 
over many 
Scotch Irish 
and Scotch 
to his side. 
The piece is 
a good ex- 
ample of the 
more moder- 
ate patriotic 
arguments. — 
For causes 
of the Revo- 
lution, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, Part 
VI. 



By the 
Boston Port 
Bill of 1774. 



54. "Conduct of the British Ministry" 



E 



VERY one knows that when the claims of the 
British ParUament were openly made, and 
violently enforced, the most precise and determined resolu- 
tions were entered into, and published by every colony, 
every county, and almost every township or smaller district, 
that they would not submit to them. This was clearly ex- 
pressed in the greatest part of them, and ought to be under- 
stood as the implied sense of them all, not only that they 
would not soon or easily, but that they would never on any 
event, submit to them. For my own part, I confess, I would 
never have signed these resolves at first, nor taken up arms 
in consequence of them afterwards, if I had not been fully 
convinced, as I am still, that acquiescence in this usurped 
power, would be followed by the total and absolute ruin of 
the colonies. They would have been no better than tribu- 
tary states to a kingdom at a great distance from them. 
They would have been therefore, as has been the case with 
all states in a similar situation from the beginning of the 
world, the servants of servants from generation to genera- 
tion. For this reason I declare it to have been my mean- 
ing, and I know it was the meaning of thousands more, that 
though we earnestly wished for reconciliation with safety to 
our liberties, yet we did deliberately prefer, not only the 
horrors of a civil war, not only the danger of anarchy, and 
the uncertainty of a new settlement, but even extermination 
itself to slavery, rivetted on us and our posterity, 

The most peaceable means were first used ; but no relax- 
ation could be obtained : one arbitrary and oppressive act 
followed after another ; they destroyed the property of a 
whole capital — subverted to its very foundation, the consti- 
tution and government of a whole colony, and granted the 



No. 54] Charges against England 139 



soldiers a liberty of murderifig in all the colonies. 1 express 
it thus, because they were not to be called to account for 
it where it was committed, which every body must allow was 
a temporary, and undoubtedly in ninety-nine cases of an 
hundred must have issued in a total impunity. There is one 
circumstance however in my opinion, much more curious 
than all the rest. The reader will say. What can this be? 
It is the following, which I beg may be particularly attended 
to : — While all this was a doing, the King in his speeches, 
the Parliament in their acts, and the people of Great Britain 
in their addresses, never failed te [to] extol their own lenity. 
I do not infer from this, that the King, Parliament and 
people of Great Britain are all barbarians and savages — 
the inference is unnecessary and unjust : But I infer the 
misery of the people of America, if they must submit in all 
cases whatsoever, to the decisions of a body of the sons of 
Adam, so distant from them, and who have an interest in 
oppressing them. It has been my opinion from the begin- 
ning, that we did not carry our reasoning fully home, when 
we complained of an arbitrary prince, or of the insolence, 
cruelty and obstinacy of Lord North, Lord Bute, or Lord 
Mansfield. What we have to fear, and what we have now 
to grapple with, is the ignorance, prejudice, partiality and 
injustice of human nature. Neither king nor ministry, could 
have done, nor durst have attempted what we have seen, 
if they had not had the nation on their side. The friends 
of America in England are few in number, and contemptible 
in influence ; nor must I omit, that even of these few, not 
one, till very lately, ever reasoned the American cause upon 
its proper principles, or viewed it in its proper light. 

Petitions on petitions have been presented to king and 
Parliament, and an address sent to the people of Great 
Britain, which have been not merely fruitless, but treated 
with the highest degree of disdain. The conduct of the 
British ministry during the whole of this contest, as has been 



This was a 
common but 
most unfair 
criticism of 
an act trans- 
ferring trials 
of certain 
cases to Eng- 
land. 



Parliament 
ministers ; 
North be- 
came prime 
minister. 



By the First 
Continental 
Congress, 
1774, and the 
Second Con- 
tinental Con- 
gress, 1775. 



140 Revolution [1775 

often observed, has been such, as to irritate the whole people 
of this continent to the highest degree, and unite them to- 
gether by the firm bond of necessity and common interest. 
In this respect they have served us in the most essential 
manner. I am firmly persuaded, that had the wisest heads 
in America met together to contrive what measures the min- 
istry should follow to strengthen the American opposition 
and defeat their own designs, they could not have fallen 
upon a plan so effectual, as that which has been steadily 
pursued. One instance I cannot help mentioning, because 
it was both of more importance, and less to be expected than 
any other. When a majority of the New- York Assembly, to 
This policy their eternal infamy, attempted to break the union of the 
raended^lTy colonies, by refusing to approve the proceedings of the 
Governor Congress, and applying to Parhament by separate petition 

Tryon, Octo- , , , , ..,.., 

ber 27, 1775. — because they presumed to make mention of the prmcipal 
grievance of taxation, it was treated with ineffable contempt. 
I desire it may be observed, that all those who are called 
the friends of America in Parliament, pleaded strongly for 
receiving the New-York petition ; which plainly shewed, 
that neither the one nor the other understood the state of 
affairs in America. Had the ministry been prudent, or the 
opposition successful, we had been ruined ; but with what 
transport did every friend to American liberty hear, that 
these traitors to the common cause, had met with the recep- 
tion which they deserved. 

Nothing is more manifest, than that the people of Great- 
Britain, and even the king and ministry, have been hitherto 
exceedingly ignorant of the state of things in America. For 
this reason, their measures have been ridiculous in the high- 
est degree, and the issue disgraceful. . . . 

John Witherspoon, On the Contro7>ersy about Independence, in 
his Miscellaneous Works (Philadelphia, 1803), 205-208. 



No. 55] Charges against America 141 



^^. Undeniable Supremacy of Parliament 

{^775) 

THE present unhappy differences subsisting among us, 
with regard to America, will, I am sensible, expose 
the publication of this account to much censure and criti- 
cism ; but I can truly aver, that I have been led to it, by no 
party motive whatsoever. My first attachment, as it is 
natural, is to my native country ; my next is to America ; 
and such is my affection for both, that I hope nothing will 
ever happen to dissolve that union, which is so necessary to 
their common happiness. Let every Englishman and Ameri- 
can, but for a moment or two, substitude[-te] themselves in 
each other's place, and, I think, a mode of reconciliation will 
soon take effect. — Every American will then perceive the 
reasonableness, of acknowledging the supremacy of the Brit- 
ish legislature ; and every Enghshman perhaps, the hardship 
of being taxed where there is no representation, or assent. 

There is scarcely any such thing, I believe, as a perfect 
government, and solecisms are to be found in all. The 
present disputes are seemingly the result of one. — Nothing 
can be more undeniable than the supremacy of parliament 
over the most distant branches of the British empire : for 
although the king being esteemed, in the eye of the law, the 
original proprietor of all the lands in the kingdom ; all lands, 
upon defect of heirs to succeed to an inheritance, escheat to 
the king ; and all new discovered lands vest in him : yet in 
neither case can he exempt them from the jurisdiction of 
the legislature of the kingdom. 

He may grant them, under leases or charters, to indi- 
viduals or companies ; with liberty of making rules and 
regulations for the internal government and improvement of 
them ; but such regulations must ever be consistent with the 
laws of the kingdom, and subject to their controul. 



By 

Reverend 

Andrew 

BURNABY 

(1732-1812), 
a clergy- 
man ot the 
Church of 
England who 
travelled in 
the colonies 
in 1759-60. 
He carefully 
observed 
and noted 
not only the 
character 
and customs 
of the people 
and the as- 
pect of the 
country, but 
also political 
and social 
movements 
and tenden- 
cies. The 
extract is 
selected as a 
temperate 
statement of 
the English 
side of the 
controversy. 
— For Bur- 
naby, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, No. 
32. — For 
Tory views, 
see Contem- 
poraries, II, 
Nos. 138, 156. 

This was 
really a new 
doctrine : 
the colonial 
charters had 
all been 
granted by 
the crown, 
and acts of 
Parliament 
applied only 
to general 
trade. 



142 



Revolution 



[1775 



The colonists 
held not only 
that they 
were not rep- 
resented in 
Parliament, 
but that they 
could not be 
represented, 
owing to the 
distance. 



By long- 
established 
custom 
these powers 
of Parlia- 
ment had 
not been ex- 
ercised. 



On the other hand, I am extremely dubious, whether it be 
consistent with the general principles of liberty (with those 
of the British constitution, I think, it is not), to tax where 
there is no representation : the arguments hitherto adduced 
from Manchester .and Birmingham, and other great towns, 
not having representatives, are foreign to the subject ; at 
least they are by no means equal to it ; — for every inhabitant, 
possessed of forty shillings freehold, has a vote in the elec- 
tion of members for the county : but it is not the persons, 
but the property of men that is taxed, and there is not a foot 
of property in this kingdom, that is not represented. 

It appears then, that certain principles exist in the British 
constitution, which militate with each other ; the reason of 
their doing so is evident ; it was never supposed that they 
would extend beyond the limits of Great Britain, or affect so 
distant a country as America. It is much to be wished, 
therefore, that some expedient could be thought of, to 
reconcile them. 

The conduct of the several administrations, that have had 
the direction of the affairs of this kingdom, has been recipro- 
cally arraigned ; but, I think, without reason ; for, all things 
considered, an impartial and dispassionate mind, will find 
many excuses to allege in justification of each. — The fewest, 
I am afraid, are to be pleaded in favour of the Americans, 
for they settled in America under charters, which expressly 
reserved to the British Parliament the authority, whether 
consistent or not consistent, now asserted. Although, there- 
fore, they had a right to make humble representations to his 
majesty in parliament, and to shew the impropriety and 
inconvenience of inforcing such principles, yet they had 
certainly no right to oppose them. 

Expedients may still be found, it is to be hoped however, 
to conciliate the present unhappy differences, and restore 
harmony again between Great Britain and her colonies ; but 
whatever measures may be adopted by parliament, I am sure. 



No. 56] 



Patriot's Prayer 143 



it is the duty and interest of America to submit. — But it is 
impertinent to enter any further into the discussion of a 
subject, which is at this time under the deUberation of the 
most august assembly in the world. I will, therefore, con- 
clude with a sincere prayer, that whatever measures may be 
adopted, they may be different in their issue, from what the 
fears of men generally lead them to preconceive ; and that, 
if they be coercive ones, they may be inforced, which, I am 
persuaded, is practicable, without the effusion of a single 
drop of blood : if lenient ones, which are preferable, and 
which I think equally practicable, without any loss or 
diminution of the dignity or interest of this kingdom. 

Andrew Burnaby, Travels throtigh the Middle Settlements in 
North- America^ in the Years ij^g and 1760 (London, 1775), 
Introduction, v-viii. 



56. "The American Patriot's Prayer" 

(1776) 

PARENT of all, omnipotent 
In heav'n, and earth below. 
Thro' all creation's bounds unspent, 
Whose streams of goodness flow. 

Teach me to know from whence I rose, 

And unto what design'd ; 
No private aims let me propose, 

Since link'd with human kind. 

But chief to hear my country's voice, 

May all my thoughts inchne, 
'T is reason's law, 't is virtue's choice, 
'T is nature's call and thine. 



Anony- 
mous. For- 
merly as- 
cribed to 
Thomas 
Paine, 
though the 
best recent 
authority has 
rejected that 
view on the 
basis of inter- 
nal evidence. 
The poem is 
one of the 
best bits of 
American 
patriotic 
verse 

of the times, 
and is his- 
torical ma- 
terial in its 
evidence of a 
profound 
patriotism. — 
For other 
specimens of 



144 



Revolution 



[1775 



patriotic 
verse, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, Nos. 
159, 164, 171, 
196. — For 
the condi- 
tions of the 
Revolution, 
see Contetn- 
poraries, II, 
Part VII. 

" Laad's," 
misprint for 
" land's." 



Me from fair freedom's sacred cause, 

Let nothing e'er divide ; 
Grandeur, nor gold, nor vain applause, 

Nor friendship false misguide. 

Let me not faction's partial hate 

Pursue to /his laad's woe ; 
Nor grasp the thunder of the state, 

To wound a private foe. 

If, for the right, to wish the wrong 

My country shall combine, 
Single to serve th' erron'ous throng, 

Spight of themselves, be mine. 



Thomas Paine, Large Additions to Commoti Sense, appended to 
his Common Sense (Philadelphia, 1776), 80. 



By Rever- 
end Will- 
iam Emer- 
son (1743- 
1776), a Con- 
cord clergy- 
man, grand- 
father of 
Ralph Waldo 
Emerson. At 
the outbreak 
of the Revo- 
lution he 
joined the 
continental 
army as 
chaplain, and 
lost his life 
in the Ticon- 
deroga expe- 
dition. His 
story is one 
of the best 
illustrations 



^j. Battle of Lexington and Concord 

{^77S) 



T] 



HIS Morn^ betw i & 2 o'Clock we 
w"; [were] alarm'd by y*" ring of 
y? Bell — & upon Exam [ination] fou[nd] y' y*" Troops, to 
y^ N? of 800, had stole y- March from Boston in Boats & 
Barg' [barges] from y^ Bottom of y" Common over to a 
Point in Cambridge, near to Inman's Farm, & were at Lex- 
ington Meeting House, half an Hour before Sunrise, where 
they had fired upon a Body of our Men, & (as we afterv^ 
heard) had killed several. This Intelligence was bro't us at 
f'.' [first] by D- Sa>n^- Prescott, who narrowly escap'd y* 



No. 57] Lexington and Concord 145 



Guard y'- were sent before on Horses, purposely to prevent 
all Posts & Messengers from giving us timely Information. 
He, by y^ Help of a very fleet Horse crossing several Walls 
and Fences, arriv'd at Concord at y^ Time abovemen*^ 
[abovementioned]. When several Posts \v^ immed[iately] 
dispatch'd, that return^ confirm'd y? Account of y"? Regulars 
Arrival at Lexington, & that they were on their Way to 
Concord. Upon this a N- of our Minitute [Minute] Men 
belong^ to y^ [this] Town, & Acton & Lyncoln, with several 
others y' were in Readiness, march'd [o]ut to meet them : 
While y? alarm Company w- preparing to receive them 
in y"- Town. — Cap- Minot who command[ed] y'" tho't it 
proper to take Possess[ion] of y'' Hill above y* Meeting 
house as y'' most advan[tageous] Situa[tion]. No sooner 
had y^ gain'd [it] than we were met by y? Companies y'- were 
sent out to meet y*^ Troops, who inform'd us, y' [they] were 
just upon us, & that we must retreat, as their N? was more 
than threbble to ours. — We then retreat'd fr[om] y? Hill 
near [the] Liberty Pole & took a new Post back of y" Town, 
upon a rising Eminince, w[h]ere we form'd into two Bat- 
talions, & waited y? Arrival of y*^ Enemy. Scarcely had 
we form'd, before we saw y? brittish Troops, at y^ Dista[nce] 
of a ^ of a Mile, glittering in Arms, advancing towards [us] 
with y^ greatest Celerity. Some were for making a Stand, 
notvv[ithstanding] y^ Super[iority] of y": N°' but others more 
prudent tho't best to retreat till our Stren[g]th sh*? be equal 
to y*^ Enemy's by Recruits from neigh^ [neighboring] Town's 
y' were contin[ually] com^ in to our Assistance Accordingly 
we retreafJ over y? Bridge, when y^ Troops came into y" 
Town, — set fire to several Carriages for y^ Artillery, de- 
stroy'd 60 Barrels of Flour, rifleled sev[eral] Houses — took 
Possession of y^ Townhouse, destroy'd 500 lb of Ball[s] set 
a Guard of 100 Men at y'' N Bridge, & S* sent up a Party 
to y^ Hou[se] of Col*? Barrett, w[h]ere they were in Expec- 
ta[tion] of finding a Quan[tity] of warlike Stores ; but these 



in this vol- 
ume of the 
effectiveness 
of a narrative 
written in the 
heat of con- 
flict.— For 
another ac- 
count of Lex- 
ington and 
Concord, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, No. 
191. — For 
the first stage 
of tlie war, 
see Contem- 
poraries, II, 
ch. xxxi. 

" Inman's 
Farm," 
present site 
of Inman 
Square, 
Cambridge- 
port. 



*Thus in 
original. 



146 



Revolution 



[1775 



* These 
words are 
repeated in 
the original. 



" And fired 
the shot 
heard round 
the world." 



were happily secur'd just before their Arrival, by Transpor- 
[tation] into y*" Wood' & other by- Places. — In y^ mean 
Time, the Guard set by [y]*^ Enemy to secure y*; Pass at y*^ 
N. Bridge, were alarm[ed] by y' Approa[ch] of our People, 
who had retreated as men' [mentioned] before, & w- now 
advancing, with spec[ial] Ord' [orders] not to not to* fire 
upon y* Troops, unless fir'd upon. — These Orders were so 
punctually observ'd y' we rec'd y" Fire of y^ Enemy in 3 
several & seperate Discharges of their Peices, before it was 
return'd, by our command[ing] Officer ; the firing then 
soon beca [became] general for sev[eral] min' [minutes], 
in w''.'' Skirmish two w- kill^ on each Side, & sev[eral] of 
y^ Enemy wounded : — It may here be obs^ [observed] by 
y" Way, y' we were y^ more cau[tious] to prevent begiii 
[beginning] a Rupture w'?' y^ K' [King's] Troops, as we 
w- then uncert[ain] what had happ[ened] at Lexington, & 
knew [not?] y' they had begun y® Quarrell there by f'.' 
firing upon our pp [people] & killing 8 Men upon y^ Spot. 
— The 3 Compa' [companies of] Troops soon quitted their 
Post at y*^ Bridge, & retreat^ in gfest [greatest] Disord- & 
Confu[sion] to y*^ main Body, who were soon upon y^ March 
to meet them. — For half an hour y • Enemy by y"^ Marches 
& counter Marches discov^ g! Feekelness [great fickleness] 
& Inconstancy of Mind, sometimes advancing sometimes 
returning to y- former Posts, till at Len[g]th they quitted 
y' Town, & retreated by y"- Wa[y] yy [they] came. In y" 
Mean Time, a Party of our Men, (150) took y^ back Wa[y] 
thro' y* g' Fields into y*" E. q- [east quarter] & had plac'd 
'ems' [themselves] to advantage, laying in Ambush, behind 
Walls Fences & Buildings, r[eady] to fire upon yv Enemy, 
on their Retreat 



From a facsimile copy of the original manuscript, appended to 
James Lyman Whitney, The Literature of the Nineteenth of 
April (Concord, 1876). 



No. 58] 



Independence 



147 



58. Drafting the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence (1776) 

YOU inquire why so young a man as Mr. Jefferson was 
placed at the head of the Committee for preparing 
a Declaration of Independence? I answer ; It was the 
Frankfort advice, to place Virginia at the head of every 
thing. Mr. Richard Henry Lee might be gone to Virginia, 
to his sick family, for aught I know, but that was not the 
reason of Mr. Jefferson's appointment. There were three 
committees appointed at the same time. One for the 
Declaration of Independence, another for preparing articles 
of Confederation, and another for preparing a treaty to be 
proposed to France. Mr. Lee was chosen for the Commit- 
tee of Confederation, and it was not thought convenient that 
the same person should be upon both. Mr. Jefferson came 
into Congress, in June, 1775, and brought with him a repu- 
tation for literature, science, and a happy talent of compo- 
sition. Writings of his were handed about, remarkable for 
the peculiar felicity of expression. Though a silent member 
in Congress, he was so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive 
upon committees and in conversation, not even Samuel 
Adams was more so, that he soon seized upon my heart ; 
and upon this occasion I gave him my vote, and did all in 
my power to procure the votes of others. I think he had 
one more vote than any other, and that placed him at the 
head of the committee. I had the next highest number, 
and that placed me the second. The committee met, dis- 
cussed the subject, and then appointed Mr. Jefferson and 
me to make the draught, I suppose because we were the 
two first on the list. 

The sub-committee met. Jefferson proposed to me to 
make the draught. . I said, " I will not." " You should do 
it." "Oh! no." "Why will you not? You ought to do 



By Dele- 
gate John 
Adams 
(173S-1826), 
successively 
school- 
master, law- 
yer, public 
man, mem- 
ber of the 
Continental 
Congress, 
ambassador, 
Vice-Presi- 
dent, and 
President. 
He made the 
best possible 
use of the 
excellent 
opportunities 
for observa- 
tion which he 
had during 
his long 
period of 
public life. 
This piece 
was written 
in 1822. — 
For other ex- 
tracts trom 
Adams, see 
Coitempora- 
ries, II, Nos. 

24. 79. 153. 
189, 217. — 
For the Dec- 
laration of 
Indepen- 
dence, see 
C^tempora- 
rics, II, 
ch. XXX. 

The " Frank- 
fort advice " 
refers to 
an interview 
between the 
Massachu- 
setts delega- 
tion to the 
Continental 
Conc;ress of 
1774 and a 



148 



Revolution 



[1776 



delegation 
from the 
Philadelphia 
Sons of Lib- 
erty. The 
meeting was 
held August 
29, 1774, at 
Frankfort, 
a town situ- 
ated five 
miles from 
Philadelphia. 

Ofjefferson's 
writings, his 
Summary 
View of the 
Rights of 
British 
America, 
originally 
planned to 
serve merely 
as a set of 
instructions 
to the Vir- 
ginia dele- 
gates to the 
Continental 
Congress, 
was chiefly 
instrumental 
in giving him 
a reputation 
among the 
members of 
the conven- 
tion. 



Roger Sher- 
man of Con- 
necticut. 



it." " I will not." " Why ? " " Reasons enough." " What 
can be your reasons ? " " Reason first — You are a Virginian, 
and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. 
Reason second — I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. 
You are very much otherwise. Reason third — You can 
write ten times better than I can." " Well," said Jefferson, 
"if you are decided, I will do as well as I can." "Very 
well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting." 

A meeting we accordingly had, and conned the paper 
over. I was delighted with its high tone and the flights of 
oratory with which it abounded, especially that concerning 
negro slavery, which, though I knew his Southern brethren 
would never suffer to pass in Congress, I certainly never 
would oppose. There were other expressions which I would 
not have inserted, if I had drawn it up, particularly that 
which called the King tyrant. I thought this too personal ; 
for I never believed George to be a tyrant in disposition and 
in nature ; I always believed him to be deceived by his 
courtiers on both sides of the Atlantic, and in his official 
capacity only, cruel. I thought the expression too passion- 
ate, and too much like scolding, for so grave and solemn a 
document ; but as Franklin and Sherman were to inspect it 
afterwards, I thought it would not become me to strike it 
out. I consented to report it, and do not now remember 
that I made or suggested a single alteration. 

We reported it to the committee of five. It was read, and 
I do not remember that Franklin or Sherman criticized any 
thing. We were all in haste. Congress was impatient, and 
the instrument was reported, as I believe, in Jefferson's hand- 
writing, as he first drew it. Congress cut off about a quarter 
of it, as I expected they would ; but they obliterated some 
of the best of it, and left all that was exceptionable, if any 
thing in it was. I have long wondered that the original 
draught has not been published. I suppose the reason is, 
the vehement philippic against negro slavery. 



No. 59] Fight at Princeton 149 

As you justly observe, there is not an idea in it but what 
had been hackneyed in Congress for two years before. The 
substance of it is contained in the declaration of rights and 
the violation of those rights, in the Journals of Congress, in 
1774. Indeed, the essence of it is contained in a pamphlet, 
voted and printed by the town of Boston, before the first 
Congress met, composed by James Otis, as I suppose, in one 
of his lucid intervals, and pruned and polished by Samuel 
Adams. 

John Adams, Works (edited by Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 
1850), II, 513-514- 



The Rights 
of the British 
Colonies 
Asserted and 
Proved 
(1764). 



59. Report of the Battle of Princeton 

I HAVE the honor to inform you, that, since the date 
of my last from Trenton, I have removed with the army 
under my command to this place. The difficulty of crossing 
the Delaware, on account of the ice, made our passage over 
it tedious, and gave the enemy an opportunity of drawing in 
their several cantonments, and assembhng their whole force 
at Princeton. Their large pickets advanced towards Trenton, 
their great preparations, and some intelligence I had received, 
added to their knowledge, that the ist of January brought 
on a dissolution of the best part of our army, gave me the 
strongest reasons to conclude, that an attack upon us was 
meditating. 

Our situation was most critical, and our force small. . . . 
On the 2d [of January, 1777], according to my expectation, 
the enemy began to advance upon us ; and, after some 
skirmishing, the head of their column reached Trenton 
about four o'clock, whilst their rear was as far back as 
Maidenhead. They attempted to pass Sanpink Creek, which 



By General 
George 
Washing- 
ton. This 
is from an 
official report 
sent by the 
commander- 
in-chief to the 
president of 
Congress 
shortly after 
the battle ; 
it is a type 
of military 
reports, 
which are 
more com- 
prehensive 
than per- 
sonal narra- 
tives. — For 
Washington, 
see above, 
No. 39. — For 
the period, 
see Co)itetn- 
poraries, II, 
ch. xxxi. 

The terms of 
service of the 
militia would 



I50 



Revolution 



[1777 



expire Janu- 
ary I, 1777. 

Sanpink = 
Assunpink. 



The British 
commander. 



runs through Trenton, at different places ; but, finding the 
forts guarded, they halted, and kindled their fires. We were 
drawn up on the other side of the creek. In this situation 
we remained till dark, cannonading the enemy, and receiv- 
ing the fire of their field-pieces, which did us but little 
damage. 

Having by this time discovered, that the enemy were 
greatly superior in number, and that their design was to 
surround us, I ordered all our baggage to be removed 
silently to Burlington soon after dark ; and at twelve 
o'clock after renewing our fires, and leaving guards at the 
bridge in Trenton, and other passes on the same stream 
above, marched by a roundabout road to Princeton, where 
I knew they could not have much force left, and might have 
stores. One thing I was certain of, that it would avoid the 
appearance of a retreat (which was of consequence, or to 
run the hazard of the whole army being cut off), whilst we 
might by a fortunate stroke withdraw General Howe from 
Trenton, and give some reputation to our arms. Happily 
we succeeded. We found Princeton about sunrise, with 
only three regiments and three troops of light-horse in it, 
two of which were on their march to Trenton. These three 
regiments, especially the two first, made a gallant resistance, 
and, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, must have lost five 
hundred men ; upwards of one hundred of them were left 
dead on the field ; and, with what I have with me and what 
were taken in the pursuit and carried across the Delaware, 
there are near three hundred prisoners, fourteen of whom are 
officers, all British. . . . 

. . . We took two brass field-pieces ; but, for want of 
horses, could not bring them away. We also took some 
blankets, shoes, and a few other trifling articles, burned 
the hay, and destroyed such other things, as the shortness 
of the time would admit of. . . . 

. . . The militia are taking spirits, and, I am told, are 



No. 6o] A Lady's Experience 151 

coming in fast from this State [New Jersey] ; but I fear 
those from Philadelphia will scarcely submit to the hardships 
of a winter campaign much longer, especially as they very 
unluckily sent their blankets with their baggage to Burlington. 
I must do them the justice however to add, that they have 
undergone more fatigue and hardship, than I expected 
militia, especially citizens, would have done at this inclem- 
ent season. I am just moving to Morristown, where I shall 
endeavor to put them under the best cover I can. Hitherto 
we have been without any ; and many of our poor soldiers 
quite barefoot, and ill clad in other respects. . . . 

George Washington, Writings (edited by Worthington Chaun- 
cey Ford, New York, etc., 1890), V, 146-151 passim. 



60. A Southern Lady's Experience of 

War (1780) 

WHILE the officers were there discoursing, word was 
brought that a party of the enemy were at a neigh- 
boring plantation, not above two miles off, carrying pro- 
visions away. In an instant the men were under arms, 
formed and marched away to the place. We were dread- 
fully alarmed at the first information, but, upon seeing with 
what eagerness our friends marched off, and what high spirits 
they were in, we were more composed, but- again relapsed 
into our fears when we heard the discharge of fire-arms ; 
they did not stay out long ; but returned with seven pris- 
oners, four whites and three blacks. When they came to 
the door, we looked out, and saw two of M'Girth's men 
with them, who had used us so ill ; my heart relented at 
sight of them, and I could not forbear looking at them with 
an eye of pity. Ah ! thought I, how fickle is fortune ! but 



By Eliza 
Wilkinson, 
a young and 
beautiful 
widow, at the 
time of the 
Revolution 
living on her 
father's estate 
in South 
Carolina. 
Her narrative 
has the 
charm of the 
personal ele- 
ment and of 
local color. — 
For another 
picture of 
Revolution- 
ary events 
and condi- 
tions by a 
feminine 
hand, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, No. 
192. — On the 
campaign in 
the South, 



152 



Revolution 



[1780 



see Cotitetn- 
poraries, II, 
ch. xxxiv. 

Daniel 
McGirfh, a 
South Caro- 
lina hunter 
and trapper, 
who had 
acted as 
scout to the 
American 
army, till a 
flogging 
given him for 
some offence 
caused him 
to go over to 
the Tories. 
A short time 
before the 
events here 
recorded his 
men had 
ridden up to 
the home of 
the Wilkin- 
sons, but had 
refrained 
from frighten- 
ing or plun- 
dering the 
inmates, as a 
band of Brit- 
ish troops 
had done 
shortly 
before. 



two days ago these poor wretches were riding about as if 
they had nothing to fear, and terrifying the weak and help- 
less by their appearance ; now, what a humbled appearance 
do they make ! But, basely as they have acted in taking up 
arms against their country, they have still some small sense 
left that they were once Americans, but now no longer so, 
for all who act as they do, forfeit that name ; and by adopt- 
ing the vices of those they join, become one with them ; but 
these poor creatures seem to have yet remaining some token 
of what they once were — else why did they, last Thursday, 
behave so much better to us than the Britons did, when 
we were equally as much in their power as we were in the 
others' ? I will let them see I have not forgot it. I arose, 
and went out to them. " I am sorry, my friends, (I could 
not help calling thcmfriejids when they were in our power,) 
to see you in this situation, you treated us with respect ; and 
I cannot but be sorry to see you in distress." " It is the 
fortune of war. Madam, and soldiers must expect it." "Well, 
you need not make yourselves uneasy ; I hope Americans 
won't treat their prisoners ill. Do, my friends, (to the sol- 
diers) use these men well — they were friendly to us." 
" Yes, Madam," said they ; " they shall be used well if it 
was only for that." I asked if they would have any thing 
to drink. Yes, they would be glad of some water. I had 
some got, and as their hands were tied, I held the glass to 
their mouths ; they bowed, and were very thankful for it. 
I was so busy, I did not observe the officers in the house ; 
several of them were at the door and window, smiling at 
me, which, when I perceived, I went in and told them how 
it was. They promised that the men should be favored for 
their behavior to us. " Madam," said one, " you would make 
a bad soldier ; however, if I was of the other party, and taken 
prisoner, I should like to fall into your hands." I smiled a 
reply, and the conversation took another turn. . . . 

A detachment of two or three hundred men, commanded 



No. 60] A Lady's Experience 153 



by Col. Malmady, were ordered on Father's Island ; they 
had a field-piece with them, and there they staid some time 
to command the river, which prevented the poor red coats 
from taking their accustomed airings. When they had been 
there a day or two, a company of horsemen rode up to the 
house we were in, and told us the General was coming along, 
and would be there presently ; they had scarcely spoken, 
when three or four officers appeared in view. They rode 
up ; (Colonel Roberts was with them, he and Father were 
old acquaintances.) He introduced one of the officers to 
Father. " General Lincoln, Sir ! " Mother was at the door. 
She turned to us, "O girls. Gen. Lincoln!" — We flew to 
the door, joy in our countenances ! for we had heard such 
a character of the General, that we wanted to see him much. 
When he quitted his horse, and I saw him limp along, I can't 
describe my feelings. The thought that his limping was 
occasioned by defending his country from the invasion of a 
cruel and unjust enemy, created in me the utmost veneration 
and tender concern for him. You never saw Gen. Lincoln, 
Mary ? — I think he has something exceeding grave, and 
even solemn, in his aspect ; not forbiddingly so neither, but 
a something in his countenance that commands respect, and 
strikes assurance dumb. He did not stay above an hour or 
two with us, and then proceeded on to camp. 

That night, two or three hundred men quartered at the 
plantation we were at. As many of the officers as could, 
slept in the hall, (the house being very small, and only in- 
tended for an overseer's house). We wanted to have beds 
made for them. No, they would not have them on any 
account, — " beds were not for soldiers, the floor or the 
earth served them as well as anywhere else." " And now," 
said Major Moore, " I'll show you how soon a soldier's bed 
is made," and, taking his surtout, spread it on the floor — 
"There," said he, " I assure you I sleep as well on that hard 
lodging as ever I slept on a feather-bed." — "You may say 



General 

Benjamin 

Lincoln. 



On account 
of the depre- 
dations of 
the British, 
the family 
had been 
compelled to 
leave their 
home and 
take refuge 
on another 
plantation. 



154 



Revolution 



[1777 



what you please, Major," (said Miss Samuells,) " but I'm 
sure a soldier's life is a life of hardships and sorrows." " In- 
deed, Madam, I think it the best life in the world ; it's what 
I delight in." " I wish all soldiers delighted in it at this 
juncture," (said I,) "because every thing they hold dear is 
at stake, and demands their presence and support in the 
field." 

Eliza Wilkinson, Letters . . . during the Invasion and Posses- 
sion of Charlestown, S. C. by the British in the Revolutiotiary 
War (edited by Caroline Oilman, New York, 1839), 62-78 
passim. 



By Captain 
Georg 
Pausch 
(1740-1796), 
Hessian 
officer, chief 
of the Hesse- 
Hanau artil- 
lery in the 
Burgoyne 
campaign. 
His journal 
is one of the 
most valu- 
able accounts 
that we have 
of the Ger- 
mans in the 
Revolution. 
Naturally he 
was some- 
what preju- 
diced against 
the rival Brit- 
ish troops. 
The follow- 
ing is an ex- 
tract from his 
description 
of the battle 
of Freeman's 
Farm, 
October 7, 
1777. — 



61. Hard Fighting at. Saratoga (1777) 

MEANWHILE, work was still progressing on the en- 
trenchments of our two wings ; and it took, by the 
way, f of an hour to march from one wing of our army to 
the other ; during which march, not the least sign of the 
enemy was seen, nor were we molested by him in the least. 
Presently, by order of Major Williams of the English Artillery, 
the two 12 pound cannon were brought up and placed in 
front of the above named house, and after being made ready, 
they were loaded. No one knew what all these arrange- 
ments meant ; but I shortly afterward learned from Capt. 
Gen. Quarter- Master Gerlach, that it was intended to make 
a diversion at this point ; and that the corps was for the 
protection of the general staff. At the same time, word was 
sent into the entrenchments of Breymann and Eraser, and 
the foragers ordered to cut down the corn-stalks yet stand- 
ing in our rear. (This is called "foraging.") An Eng- 
lish officer now arrived in haste, saying that there were 
no cannon on the flank of the left wing, and that I must 
immediately send one of mine. Against this I protested, 



No. 6i] Fight at Saratoga 155 



on the ground that I had but two cannon, and in case of 
complying with his wish I should only be able to serve one 
gun ; that I desired, if it was a general order to march there 
either with both of the cannon or to give up neither — one 
cannon being no command for a subaltern, to say nothing of 
a captain ; and finally, that they had four 6 pound cannon 
of their own, of which one had but just gone past the left 
wing. The officer at this made himself scarce and brought 
no other order ; and I remained at the post which I had 
myself chosen and occupied. 

After the lapse of half an hour we noticed a few patrols in 
the woods, and on the height to the left of the wood ; and, 
at the same moment, the above mentioned two 12 pounders 
opened fire. 

Shortly after this, a large number of the enemy's advance- 
guard, who were in the bushes, engaged our Yagers, Chas- 
seurs, and Volunteers. The action extended all along the 
front, the enemy appearing in force. During this time, and 
while both sides were thus contending, and I was serving my 
cannon, there marched out of the enemy's entrenchment on 
their left wing, at a " double quick " and in squares, two 
strong columns, one towards our right, and the other towards 
our left wing ; while, at the same moment, additional forces 
of the enemy poured down in troops to reinforce those who 
were already engaged with us, and advanced madly and 
blindly in the face of a furious fire. The attack began on 
the left wing with a terrific musketry fire, but, in a few 
minutes, the enemy repulsed it ; while the cannon, sent 
there by the English Artillery, was captured by the enemy 
before a single shot had been fired from them. And now, 
the firing from cannon and small arms began to get very 
brisk on our right wing. 

At this junction, our left wing retreated in the greatest 
possible disorder, thereby causing a similar rout among our 
German command, which was stationed behind the fence in 



For the Hes- 
sians, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, ch. 
xxix. — For 
the cam- 
paign, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, No. 
197. 



Yagers = 
light infantry 
chosen 
chiefly from 
foresters. 



15^ 



Revolution 



[1777 



William P. 
Smith, a 
lieutenant, 
later colonel 
in the Royal 
Artillerv. 



line of battle. They retreated — or to speak more plainly 
— they left their position without informing me, although I 
was but fifty paces in advance of them. Each man for him- 
self, they made for the bushes. ... In the mean time, on 
our right wing, there was stubborn fighting on both sides, 
our rear, meanwhile, being covered by a dense forest, which, 
just before had protected our right flank. The road by 
which we were to retreat lay through the woods and was 
already in the hands of the enemy, who accordingly inter- 
cepted us. Finding myself, therefore, finally in my first 
mentioned position — alone, isolated, and almost surrounded 
by the enemy, and with no way open but the one leading to 
the house where the two 1 2 pound cannon stood, dismounted 
and deserted — I had no alternative but to make my way 
along it with great difficulty . . . 

... I presently came across a little earth-work, 18 feet 
long by 5 feet high. This I at once made use of by posting 
my two cannon, one on the right, and the other on the left, 
and began a fire alternately with balls and with shells, with- 
out, however, being able to discriminate in favor of our men 
who were in the bushes ; for the enemy, without troubling 
them, charged savagely upon my cannon, hoping to dis- 
mount and silence them. . . . 

A brave English Lieutenant of Artillery, by the name of 
Schmidt and a sergeant were the only two who were willing 
to serve the cannon longer. He came to me and asked me 
to let him have ten artillery-men and one subaltern from my 
detachment to serve these cannon. But it was impossible 
for me to grant his request, no matter how well disposed I 
might have been towards it. Two of my men had been shot 
dead ; three or four were wounded ; a number had straggled 
off, and all the Infantry detailed for that purpose, either 
gone to the devil or run away. Moreover, all I had left, for 
the serving of each cannon, were four or five men and one 
subaltern. . . . 



tfWJ Eigliteca VeNCE ."^1^^ Nc^77 ^'^ ^"^ ' 



„, J'-T-HIS Bri,i.-bj' i^rfhallpafs current in IV EW- JERSEY, 

'm'^'j.) X for /(7Mr Penny-weight, [(fp] and I^im Grains o'i Ptate. 

pfe^^d JDecember 3 1 , 1703, \ Eighteen Pence. ^ 



,.••:>*, 

& 
/t^^'^ 










Specimen of Colonial paper currency, 1763. 
silver bullion. 



Ptate is for Plate, i.e. 




Specimen of Continental paper currency, 1776. Tribulatio ditat 
means Trouble enriches. 



No. 62] 



Paper Mone 



y 



^57 



. . . Seeing that all was irretrievably lost, and that it was 
impossible to save anything, I called to my few remaining men 
to save themselves. I myself, took refuge through [behind] 
a fence, in a piece of dense underbrush on the right of the 
road, with the last [remaining] ammunition wagon, which, 
with the help of a gunner, I saved with the horses. Here I 
met all the different nationalities of our division running pell- 
mell — among them Capt. Schoel, with whom there was not Commander 
a single man left of the Hanau Regiment. In this confused man^Ligh7 
retreat, all made for our camp and our hnes. The entrench- Brigade. 
ment of Breymann was furiously assailed ; the camp in it set By Arnold, 
on fire and burned, and all the baggage-horses and baggage 
captured by the enemy. The three 6 pound cannon of my 
brigade of Artillery were also taken, the artillery-men, Wach- 
ler and Fintzell, killed, and artillery-man Wall (under whose 
command were the cannon) severely, and others slightly, 
wounded. The enemy occupied this entrenchment, and re- 
mained in it during the night. . . . 

Captain [Georg] Pausch, Journal (translated by William L. 
Stone, Albany, 1886), \6t,-\']i passim. 



62. The Baneful Influence of Paper 
Money (1777) 

71 'Y OV. 2'jth, 28//i, 2gth, 2,Qth [1777]. — These 4 
/ y/ days the fleet [has been] coming up in great 
numbers. Some part of the army have marched 
over Schuylkill, and reports are prevalent that the main 
part of the army will soon move off. . The Americans are 
moving off their heavy cannon. Gen'l Washington, it is 
said, is going to Virginia in a few weeks, and the command 
[is] to devolve upon Gen'l Gates. Great exertions are 



By Robert 
Morton 
(1760-1786), 
son of a 
Philadelphia 
merchant. 
During the 
British occu- 
pation of 
Philadelphia, 
Morton, a 
boy of about 
seventeen, 
kept a diary, 
showing 
powers of 
observation 
and facility 



158 



Revolution 



[1777 



of expression 
remarkable 
for so young 
a man. His 
account is 
very trust- 
worthy and 
throws much 
light on the 
relations be- 
tween the 
British and 
the inhal)it- 
ants during 
the occupa- 
tion. — For 
finances in 
the Revolu- 
tion, see Con- 
temporaries, 
II, eh. x.xxiii. 

" Legal paper 
currency" = 
not conti- 
nental but 
State notes. 

I.e. to sup- 
port paper 
money. 



making, both by the men and women of this city, to sup- 
port the credit of the paper money legally issued. The 
women are determined to purchase no goods with hard 
money. Some of those who agreed to receive paper money 
have refused it for their goods, and among the rest some 
of our Society [of Friends]. 

Dec. \st, 2nd, yd. — Numbers of the Fleet [are] daily 
arriving. None of the large ships have yet come up. A 
contest has subsisted in this City since the arrival of the 
fleet, concerning the legal Paper Currency. The English 
merchants that came in the fleet will not dispose of their 
goods without hard money, alleging that no bills are to be 
bought, no produce to be obtained, and no method can be 
adopted by which they can send remittances. Numbers 
of the most respectable inhabitants are using all their in- 
fluence to support it, and numbers of others who have no 
regard for the public good, are giving out the hard money 
for what they want for immediate use, thus purchasing 
momentary gratifications at the expense of the Public, for 
if the circulation of this money should be stopt, many who 
have no legal money but paper, and have no means of 
obtaining gold and silver, will be reduced to beggary and 
want, and those who are so lost to every sense of honor, to 
the happiness of their fellow citizens, and eventually their 
own good, as to give out their hard money, either for the 
goods of those who are newcomers, or in the public market 
where it is now exacted for provisions, will, by their evil 
example, oblige those who possess hard money, to advance 
it and ruin the credit of the other money for the present. 
The consequence of which must be that we shall be shortly 
drained of our hard cash, the other money rendered useless, 
no trade by which we can get a fresh supply, our ruin must 
therefore be certain and inevitable. This depreciation of 
the Paper Currency will not only extend its baneful influence 
over this City, but over all the continent, as the friends of 



No. 63] Cornwallis's Surrender 159 

government and others have been collecting this legal tender 
for several mo's [months] past, expecting that in those 
places in the possession of the British Army it will be of 
equal value with gold and silver. But from the enemies 
of the British constitution among ourselves, who give out 
their hard money for goods, from the almost universal pref- 
erence of private interest to the pubhc good, and from a 
deficiency of public virtue, it is highly probable the paper 
money will fall, and those newcomers having extracted all 
our hard money, will leave us in a situation not long to sur- 
vive our Ruin. . . . 

Diary of Robert Morton, in Petmsylvania Magazine of History 
and Biography (Philadelphia, 1877), I, 31-33. 



I.e. friends oi 
royal govern- 
ment. 



63. A Ballad on Cornwallis (1781) 

WHEN British troops first landed here. 
With Howe commander o'er them. 
They thought they'd make us quake for fear, 

And carry all before them ; 
With thirty thousand men or more, 

And she without assistance, 
America must needs give o'er, 
And make no more resistance. 

But Washington, her glorious son, 

Of British hosts the terror. 
Soon, by repeated overthrows, 

Convinc'd them of their error ; 
Let Princeton, and let Trenton tell. 

What gallant deeds he's done, sir. 
And Monmouth's plains where hundreds fell. 

And thousands more have run, sir. 



his 



Anony- 
mous. 
is one among 
a number of 
songs com- 
posed to 
commemo- 
rate Corn- 
wallis's sur- 
render at 
Yorktown. 
It was pub- 
lished soon 
after that 
event and 
sung to the 
air of " Mag- 
gie Lauder, " 
at that time 
very popular 
in both 
armies. — 
For York- 
town, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, 
ch. xxxiv. 



i6o 



Revolution 



[1781 



The mastery 

of the seas, 
held for a 
short time by 
France, pre- 
vented the 
British from 
entering the 
Chesapeake 
to relieve 
Cornwallis. 
— See Con- 
temporaries, 
II, Nos. 199, 
213. 



On the 
peace, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, ch. 

XXXV. 



Cornwallis, too, when he approach'd 

Virginia's old dominion, 
Thought he would soon her conqu'ror be ; 

And so was North's opinion. 
From State to State with rapid stride, 

His troops had march'd before, sir, 
Till quite elate with martial pride, 

He thought all dangers o'er, sir. 

But our allies, to his surprise. 

The Chesapeake had enter'd ; 
And now too late, he curs'd his fate, 

And wish'd he ne'er had ventur'd, 
For Washington no sooner knew 

The visit ho had paid her. 
Than to his parent State he flew. 

To crush the bold invader. 

When he sat down before the town, 

His Lordship soon surrender'd ; 
His martial pride he laid aside. 

And cas'd the British standard ; 
Gods ! how this stroke will North provoke. 

And all his thoughts confuse, sir ! 
And how the Peers will hang their ears, 

When first they hear the news, sir. 

Be peace, the glorious end of war, 

By this event effected ; 
And be the name of Washington, 

To latest times respected ; 
Then let us toast America, 

And France in union with her; 
And may Great Britain rue the day 

Her hostile bands came hither. 

Frank Moore, Sofigs and Ballads of the American Revolution 
(New York, 1856), 367-369. 



CHAPTER X — THE CONFEDERA- 
TION AND THE CONSTITUTION 



64. What is an American? (1782) 

I WISH I could be acquainted with the feelings and thoughts 
which must agitate the heart and present themselves to 
the mind of an enlightened Englishman, when he first lands 
on this continent [America]. . . . Here he sees the industry 
of his native country displayed in a new manner . . . Here 
he beholds fair cities, substantial villages, extensive fields, 
an immense country filled with decent houses, good roads, 
orchards, meadows, and bridges, where an hundred years 
ago all was wild, woody and uncultivated ! . . . He is 
arrived on a new continent ; a modern society offers itself 
to his contemplation, different from what he had hitherto 
seen. It is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who 
possess every thing, and of a herd of people who have noth- 
ing. Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, 
no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible power 
giving to a few a very visible one ; no great manufacturers 
employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury. The 
rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as 
they are in Europe. Some few towns excepted, we are all 
tillers of the earth, from Nova Scotia to West Florida. We 
are a people of cultivators, scattered over an immense terri- 
tory, communicating with each other by means of good roads 
and navigable rivers, united by the silken bands of mild gov- 
ernment, all respecting the laws, without dreading their power, 
because they are equitable. We are all animated with the 

M 161 



By J. Hec- 
tor St. 
John de 
Creve- 

CCEUR 

(1731-1809 
or 1813), a 
native of 
Normandy, 
land culti- 
vator in New 
York, later 
French con- 
sul in New 
York City. 
His Letters 
fro?n an 
American 
Fanner oc- 
casioned a 
large French 
immigration 
to Ohio. His 
laudations of 
America 
were perhaps 
a little over- 
drawn. — On 
American 
culture in 
1782, see 
Contempora- 
ries, Hl.ch.i. 

Cr6vecoeur 
overesti- 
mates the 
goodness of 
the roads. 



1 62 Confederation [1782 

spirit of an industry which is unfettered and unrestrained, 
because each person works for himself. ... A pleasing 
uniformity of decent competence appears throughout our 
habitations. The meanest of our log-houses is a dry and 
comfortable habitation. Lawyer or merchant are the fairest 
titles our towns afford ; that of a farmer is the only appella- 
tion of the rural inhabitants of our country. . . . Here man 
is free as he ought to be ; nor is this pleasing equality so 
Forty years transitory as many others are. Many ages will not see the 
sh'ores^hrd a chores of our great lakes replenished with inland nations, nor 
large popuia- the unknown bounds of North America entirely peopled. 
Who can tell how far it extends? Who can tell the millions 
of men whom it will feed and contain? for no European foot 
has as yet travelled half the extent of this mighty continent ! 
The next wish of this traveller will be to know whence 
came all these people ? they are a mixture of English, Scotch, 
Irish, French, Dutch, Germans, and Swedes. From this 
promiscuous breed, that race now called Americans have 
arisen. . . . 

... By what invisible power has this surprising metamor- 
phosis been performed ? By that of the laws and that of their 
industry. The laws, the indulgent laws, protect them as 
they arrive, stamping on them the symbol of adoption ; they 
receive ample rewards for their labours ; these accumulated 
rewards procure them lands ; those lands confer on them 
the title of freemen, and to that title every benefit is affixed 
which men can possibly require. This is the great operation 
daily performed by our laws. From whence proceed these 
laws? From our government. Whence that government? 
It is derived from the original genius and strong desire of 
the people ratified and confirmed by the crown. This is the 
great chain which links us all, this is the picture which every 
province exhibits. . . . 

. . . He is an American, who leaving behind him all his 
ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the 



No. 64] The American 163 

new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he 
obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American 
by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater, 
Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of 
men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great 
changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, 
who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, 
sciences, vigour, and industry which began long since in the 
east j they will finish the great circle. The Americans were 
once scattered all over Europe j here they are incorporated 
into one of the finest systems of population which has ever 
appeared, and. which will hereafter become distinct by the 
power of the different climates they inhabit. The American 
ought therefore to love this country much better than that 
wherein either he or his forefathers were born. Here the 
rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress 
of his labour ; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, 
self-interest ; can it want a stronger allurement ? Wives and 
children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of 
bread, now, fat and frolicksome, gladly help their father to 
clear those fields whence exuberant crops are to arise to feed 
and to clothe them all ; without any part being claimed, 
either by a despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a mighty lord. 
Here religion demands but little of him ; a small voluntary 
salary to the minister, and gratitude to God ; can he refuse 
these? The American is a new man, who acts upon new 
principles ; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form 
new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile depend- 
ence, penury, and useless labour, he has passed to toils of a 
very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence, — This 
is an American. 

J. Hector St. John [de Cr^vecoeur], Letters from an American 
Farmer (London, 1782), 45-53 passim. 



I 64 



Confederation 



[1783 



By Judge 
Benjamin 
Hunting- 
ton (1736- 
1800), a Con- 
necticut pub- 
lic man and 
jurist, mem- 
ber of the 
Continental 
Congress 
and later of 
the first Con- 
gress under 
the Constitu- 
tion. His 
letters to his 
wife, from 
New York, 
Princeton, 
and Phila- 
delphia, 
throw much 
light on the 
life of the 
members 
and their 
surround- 
ings. — For 
Huntington, 
see Contciit- 
poraries, H, 
No. 163. — 
For the Con- 
tinental Con- 
gress, see 
Contempora- 
ries, H, Nos. 

141. 153. 15s. 
185, 189, 190, 
209, 219 ; 
HI. 

" Dutch Min- 
ister," i.e. an 
envoy from 
Holland. 

The " New 
Jersey mus- 
quitoes" were 
famous from 
the earliest 
history of the 
province. 



65. Life in Congress (1783) 

Princeton Septr 8th 1783 

DEAR Mrs Huntington 
Since my Last Nothing Material has haj3ned a Dutch 
Minister is Dayly Expected to arrive in Philadelphia and it 
was Rumoured that Some of his furniture was arrived last 
Week This must be a Wonderful great Affair and what 
Congress can Do with this Great Personage in Princeton is 
more than Humane Wisdom can Divise [devise] for there 
are not Buildings Sufficient to House more Dons [gentle- 
men] nor . . . Indeed as many as are Already here Some 
are under Necessity to Go to Philadelphia once or Twice 
a fortnight to Breath in Polite Air. The Country so badly 
agrees with those Sublime & Delicate Constitutions that it 
is to be feared that many of them will Contract a Rusticity 
that Can never be wholly Purged off We have nothing 
here but the Necessaries and Comforts of Life and who can 
live so? The Agreeables of the City cannot be had in the 
Country I Expect no Business of Importance will be Done 
untill Congress Returns to that Sweet Paridice [paradise] 
from which they hastily took Flight in June last Since 
which Time an Awkward Rustication has been their Painful 
Situation on an Eminence in the Country where they have 
no Musquitoes to Serenade them in bed and in the Day 
they have a Prospect of no more than 30 or 40 Miles to the 
High Lands on [or] the Sea Coast nor can they hear the 
musick of Carts and Waggons on the Pavements in the City 
nor See the motly Crowd of Beings in those Streets. This 
must be Truely Distressing to Gentlemen of Taste — The 
Ladies make less Complaint than the Gentlemen and the 
Gentlemen who have their Ladies here seem in some Degree 
Contented. The President of Congress who Belongs in the 
Jersy is obliged to leave his Lady in Philadelphia to Keep 
Possession but has the Promise of a Very Genteel House 



No. 65] 



Congress 



65 



nere if he will take it but not Knowing whether Congress 
will abide in Princetown or not, he is at the utmost Loss 
what to Do, Whether it is best for him and his wife to live 
together as Peasants do in the Country or for her to be at 
Philad'' as the Ladies do, and for him to Live as a Gentle- 
man Doing Business in the Country in hopes of Retiring to 
the Pleasures and amusements of the City when Business 
is over this Matter Requiring Great Deliberation Cannot 
(like the Emigration of Congress in June last) be hastily 
Determined Thus you See we Great Folks are not without 
Trouble. I hope to become a small man in a few Weeks 
and Retire from the Embarrassments of Dignity to the Plain 
& Peaceful Possessions of a Private Life not Desiring to 
Live without Business but to do useful Business without ye 
Pangs & Vanity of this Wicked World 

All I have Wrote is not what I Designed when I began & 
Consequently have not yet advanced one Step toward any 
Design and having nothing to Write About am at a Great 
Loss what to Write because it Requires more Strength of 
Genius to Build on Hansom [an handsome] Fabrick with- 
out Materials than with — I am Spending Money very fast 
but not so fast as I Could with the Same Degree of 
Industery in Philadelphia & it is a Mortifying Consideration 
that my Cash is Spent for no better Purposes, but the Great 
& General Concerns of a Nation must [be] attended to and 
the Fashions & Customs of the World are Such as Require 
it to be Done with Expence — A new Fashion is among the 
Ladies here which is the Same as at Philad*^ The Roll is 
much less than formerly and is Raised to a Peak on their 
Forehead Frowzled and Powdered and they wear Men's 
Beaver Hats with a Large Tye of Gauze like a Sash or 
Mourning Wead [weed] about the Crown & Decorated with 
Feathers & Plumes on the Top which makes a very Daring 
Appearance The Brim of the Hat is Loped before about 
as low as their Eyes and is a Kind of Riding Hat They 
Walk Abroad and Sit in Church in the Same. Some have 



The presi- 
dent of Con- 
gress was 
Elias Boudi- 
not ; he was 
a man of 
large means. 



Congress sat 
at Princeton 
because it 
had been 
assaulted by 
mutineers at 
Philadelphia 
in June, 1783. 



On the fash- 
ions of the 
time, see Con- 
temporaries, 

II, ch. xii ; 

III, ch. i. 



i66 



Confederation 



[1788 



For docu- 
ments on the 
Confedera- 
tion, see 
American 
Histoiy Leaf- 
lets, No. 28. 



them in the Same Figure made of Paper and Covered with 
Silk with Deep Crowns as a Beaver Hat but as this is much 
out of the Line of Business I was sent here to do I have not 
been very Particular on the Subject I might also mention 
the Waistcoat and Long Sleaves much like the Riding habits 
our Ladies wore Twenty five years ago but as they Differ 
some from them & having no Right to be very Much in 
Observation upon the Ladies I am not able to say Much on 
the Subject 

Give my love in Particular to Every Child in our Family & 
Regards to Friends & Neighbors 

I am Dear Spouse 

your Most Affectionate 

Benj Huntington 
Mrs Anne Huntington 



W. D. McCrackan, editor, The Huntington Letters (New York, 
1897), 56-61. 



No. 66 is 
by Jean 

PiKKRE 

Brissot de 
Wakville 
(1754-1793), 
a famous 
French Re- 
publican. 
In 1788 he 
founded a 
society of 
" Friends of 
Ihe Blacks," 
and in the 
commission 
of this body 
came to 
America to 
inquire into 
the condition 
of the negro. 
He partici- 
pated in the 
French 



66. The West (1788) 

I HAVE not the time, my friend, to describe to you the 
new country of the West ; which, though at present 
unknown to the Europeans, must, from the nature of things, 
very soon merit the attention of every commercial and 
manufacturing nation. I shall lay before you at present 
only a general view of these astonishing settlements, and 
refer to another time the details which a speculative phi- 
losopher may be able to draw from them. At the foot of 
the AUeganies, whose summits, however, do not threaten 
the heavens, like those of the Andes and the Alps, begins 
an immense plain, intersected with hills of a gentle ascent, 
and watered every where with streams of all sizes ; the soil 



No. 66] 



The West 



167 



is from three to seven feet deep, and of an astonishing 
fertility : it is proper for every kind of culture, and it multi- 
plies cattle almost without the care of man. 

It is there that those establishments are formed, whose 
prosperity attracts so many emigrants; such as Kentucky, 
Frankland, Cumberland, Holston, Muskingum, and Scioto. 

The oldest and most flourishing of these is Kentucky, 
which began in 1775, had eight thousand inhabitants in 
1782, fifty thousand in 1787, and seventy thousand in 1790. 
It will soon be a State. 

Cumberland, situated in the neighbourhood of Kentucky, 
contains 8000 inhabitants, Holston 5000, and Frankland 
25,000. . . . 

There is nothing to fear, that the danger from the savages 
will ever arrest the ardour of the Americans for extending 
their settlements. They all expect that the navigation of 
the Missisippi becoming free, will soon open to them the 
markets of the islands, and the Spanish colonies, for the pro- 
ductions with which their country overflows. But the ques- 
tion to be solved is, whether the Spaniards will open this 
navigation willingly, or whether the Americans will force it. 
A kind of negociation has been carried on, without effect 
for four years ; and it is supposed, that certain States, fear- 
ing to lose their inhabitants by emigration to the West, 
have, in concert with the Spanish minister, opposed it . . . 

... a number of reasons determine me to believe, that 
the present union will for ever subsist. A great part of the 
property of the Western land belongs to people of the East ; 
the unceasing emigrations serve perpetually to strengthen 
their connexions ; and as it is for the interest both of the 
East and West, to open an extensive commerce with South- 
America, and to overleap the Missisippi ; they must, and 
will, remain united for the accomplishment of this object. 

The Western inhabitants are convinced that this naviga- 
tion cannot remain a long time closed. They are deter- 



Revolution 
and became 
leader of the 
Girondists. 
Brissot was a 
sympathetic 
observer of 
American 
conditions 
and institu- 
tions. — 
For early 
Western 
settlements, 
see Contem- 
poraries, II, 
chs. X.X, -xxii ; 
III. 

Frankland, 
or Franklin, 
now eastern 
Tennessee. 



Spain, by 
holding New 
Orleans, con- 
trolled the 
mouth of the 
Mississippi. 



Through 
bounty lands 
and land 
companies. 



i68 



Confederation 



[1788 



This predic- 
tion was justi- 
fied in 1803. 



Ecuador. 



Not fulfilled 
entirely till 
the emanci- 
pation in 
Brazil, in 



mined to open it by good will or by force ; and it would 
not be in the power of Congress to moderate their ardour. 
Men who have shook off the yoke of Great-Britain, and 
who are masters of the Ohio and the Missisippi, cannot 
conceive that the insolence of a handful of Spaniards can 
think of shutting rivers and seas against a hundred thousand 
free Americans. The slightest quarrel will be sufficient to 
throw them into a flame ; and if ever the Americans shall 
march towards New Orleans, it will infallibly fall into their 
hands. ... 

I transport myself sometimes in imagination to the suc- 
ceeding century. I see this whole extent of continent, from 
Canada to Quito, covered with cultivated fields, little vil- 
lages, and country houses. I see Happiness and Industry, 
smiling side by side. Beauty adorning the daughter of 
Nature, Liberty and Morals rendering almost useless the 
coercion of Government and Laws, and gentle Tolerance 
taking place of the ferocious Inquisition. I see Mexicans, 
Peruvians, men of the United States, Frenchmen, and 
Canadians, embracing each other, cursing tyrants, and bless- 
ing the reign of Liberty, which leads to universal harmony. 
But the mines, the slaves, what is to become of them ? The 
mines will be closed, and the slaves will become the brothers 
of their masters. . . . 

Our speculators in Europe are far from imagining that 
two revolutions are preparing on this continent, which will 
totally overturn the ideas and the commerce of the old : the 
opening a canal of communication between the two oceans, 
and abandoning the mines of Peru. Let the imagination of 
the philosopher contemplate the consequences. They can- 
not but be happy for the human race. 

J. P. Brissot de Warville, New Travels in titc United States of 
America. Performed in 178S (translated, London, 1792), 
474-483 passim. 



No. 67] Northwest Ordinance 169 



67. The Inner History of the Northwest 
Ordinance (1787) 

'J^^RIDAY, July 20 [1787]. This morning the Secre- 
ri tary of Congress furnished me with the Ordinance of 
yesterday, which states the conditions of a contract, 
but on terms to which I shall by no means accede. Informed 
the Committee of Congress that I could not contract on the 
terms proposed ; should prefer purchasing lands of some of 
the States, who would give incomparably better terms, and 
therefore proposed to leave the City immediately. They 
appeared to be very sorry no better terms were offered, and 
insisted on my not thinking of leaving Congress until another 
attempt was made. I told them I saw no prospect of a con- 
tract, and wished to spend no more time and money on a 
business so unpromising. They assured me I had many 
friends in Congress who would make every exertion in my 
favor ; that it was an object of great magnitude, and [I] 
must not expect to accomplish it in less than two or three 
months. If I desired it, they would take the matter up that 
day on different ground, and did not doubt they should still 
obtain terms agreeably to my wishes. . . . 

Monday, Ji4ly 23. My friends had made every exertion 
in private conversation to bring over my opposers in Con- 
gress. In order to get at some of them, so as to work 
powerfully on their minds, [we] were obliged to engage three 
or four persons before we could get at them. In some 
instances we engaged one person, who engaged a second, 
and he a third, and so on to a fourth, before we could effect 
our purpose. In these maneuvers I am much beholden to 
the assistance of Colonel Diier and Major Sargent. 

The matter was taken up this morning in Congress, and 
warmly debated until 3 o'clock, when another ordinance 



By 

Reverend 

Manasseh 
Cutler 
(1742-1823), 
a New Eng- 
land clergy- 
man who 
served as a 
chaplain in 
the conti- 
nental army. 
He later be- 
came inter- 
ested in the 
formation of 
the Ohio 
Company, of 
which he was 
made agent. 
He drafted 
for Nathan 
Dane the 
famous ordi- 
nance ex- 
cluding slav- 
ery from the 
Northwest 
Territory, 
and furnish- 
ing a model 
for the 

colonial gov- 
ernments of 
the United 
States. The 
piece is also 
an illustration 
of the diffi- 
culties of 
business in 
the Congress 
of the Con- 
federation. — 
On the Ordi- 
nance, see 
Contempora- 
ries, HI. 



170 



Confederation 



[1787 



Temple was 

British 

consul. 



was obtained. This was not to the minds of my friends, 
who were now considerably increased in Congress . . . 

Thursday, July 26. . . . Dined with Sir John Temple. 
Several gentlemen in company. Immediately after dining 
took my leave and called on Dr. Holton. He told me that 
Congress had been warmly engaged on our business the whole 
day ; that the opposition was lessened, but our friends did not 
think it prudent to come to a vote, lest there should not be 
a majority in favor. I felt much discouraged, and told the 
Doctor I thought it in vain to wait longer, and should certainly 
leave the city the next day. He cried out on my impatience, 
said if I obtained my purpose in a month from that time I 
should be far more expeditious than was common in getting 
much smaller matters through Congress ; that it was of great 
magnitude, for it far exceeded any private contract ever 
made before in the United States ; that if I should fail now, 
I ought still to pursue the matter, for I should most certainly 
finally obtain the object I wished. To comfort me he assured 
me that it was impossible for him to conceive by what kind 
of address I had so soon and so warmly engaged the atten- 
tion of Congress, for since he had been a member of that 
body he assured me on his honor he never knew so much 
attention paid to any one person who made application to 
them on any kind of business, nor did he ever know them 
more pressing to bring it to a close. He could not have 
supposed that any three men from New England, even of 
the first character, could have accomplished so much in so 
short a time. This, I believe, was mere flattery, though it 
was delivered with a very serious air, but it gave me some 
consolation. I now learned very nearly who were for and 
who were against the terms. Bingham is come over, but 
Few and Kearney are stubborn. Unfortunately there are 
only eight states represented, and unless seven of them are 
in favor no ordinance can pass. Every moment of this even- 
ing until two o'clock was busily employed. A warm seige 



No. 67] Northwest Ordinance 171 

was laid on Few and Kearney from different quarters, and if 
the point is not effectually carried the attack is to be renewed 
in the morning. Duer, Sargent, and myself have also agreed, 
if we fail, that Sargent shall go on to Maryland, which is not 
at present represented, and prevail on the members to come 
on, and to interest them, if possible, in our plan. I am to 
go on to Connecticut and Rhode Island, to solicit the mem- 
bers from these states to go on to New York, and to lay an 
anchor to the windward with them. As soon as those states 
are represented Sargent is to renew the application, and I 
have promised Duer, if it be found necessary, I will then 
come on to New York again. 

Friday, July 27. I rose very early this morning, and, 
after adjusting my baggage for my return, for I was deter- 
m[in]ed to leave New York this day, I set out on a general 
morning visit, and paid my respects to all the members of 
Congress in the city, and informed them of my intention to 
leave the city that day. My expectations of obtaining a 
contract, I told them, were nearly at an end. I should, how- 
ever, wait the decision of Congress, and if the terms we had 
stated, and which I conceived to be exceedingly advantageous 
to Congress, considering the circumstances of that country, 
were not acceded to, we must turn our attention to some 
other part of the country. New York, Connecticut, and 
Massachusetts would sell us lands at half a dollar, and give 
us exclusive privileges beyond what we had asked of Con- 
gress. . . . These and such hke were the arguments I 
urged. They seemed to be fully acceded to, but whether 
they will avail is very uncertain. Mr. R. H. Lee assured me 
he was prepared for one hour's speech, and he hoped for 
success. All urged me not to leave the city so soon ; but I 
assumed the air of perfect indifference, and persisted in my 
determination, which had apparently the effect I wished. 
Passing the City Hall as the members were going in to 
Congress, Colonel Carrington told me he believed Few was 



172 



Confederation 



[1787 



secured, that little Kearney was left alone, and that he 
determined to make one trial of what he could do in Con- 
gress. Called at Sir John Temple's for letters to Boston ; 
bid my friends good-by ; and, as it was my last day, Mr. 
Henderson insisted on my dining with him and a number of 
his friends whom he had invited. 

At half-past three, I was informed that an Ordinance had 
passed Congress on the terms stated in our letter, without 
the least variation, and that the Board of Treasury was 
directed to take Order and close the contract. . . . 

Manasseh Cutler, Life, Journals, and Correspondence (edited by 
W. P. Cutler and Julia P. Cutler, Cincinnati, 1888), I, 294- 
305 passim. 



By Dele- 
gate 
George 
Mason 
(1725-1792), 
fourth of the 
name in a 
celebrated 
Virginia fam- 
ily. Among 
other things 
he drew up 
the Virginia 
Resolutions 
of 1769, and 
in 1776 
drafted the 
Virginia 
Declaration 
of Rights. 
He was a 
member of 
the Constitu- 
tional Con- 
vention, but 
being very 
democratic 
and opposed 
to extending 
the powers of 



68. Objections to the Constitution (1787) 

THERE is no Declaration of Rights, and the laws of 
the general government being paramount to the 
laws and constitution of the several States, the Declarations 
of Rights in the separate States are no security. Nor are 
the people secured even in the enjoyment of the benefit of 
the common law. 

In the House of Representatives there is not the substance 
but the shadow only of representation ; which can never 
produce proper information in the legislature, or inspire 
confidence in the people ; the laws will therefore be gen- 
erally made by men little concerned in, and unacquainted 
with their effects and consequences. 

The Senate have the power of altering all money bills, 
and of originating appropriations of money, and the salaries 
of the officers of their own appointment, in conjunction 
with the president of the United States, although they are 
not the representatives of the people or amenable to them. 



No. 68J Constitution Criticized 173 



These with their other great powers, viz. : their power in 
the appointment of ambassadors and all public ofificers, in 
making treaties, and in trying all impeachments, their in- 
fluence upon and connection with the supreme Executive 
from these causes, their duration of office and their being a 
constantly existing body, almost continually sitting, joined 
with their being one complete branch of the legislature, will 
destroy any balance in the government, and enable them to 
accompUsh what usurpations they please upon the rights and 
liberties of the people. 

The Judiciary of the United States is so constructed and 
extended, as to absorb and destroy the judiciaries of the 
several States ; thereby rendering law as tedious, intricate 
and expensive, and justice as unattainable, by a great part 
of the community, as in England, and enabling the rich to 
oppress and ruin the poor. 

The President of the United States has no Constitutional 
Council, a thing unknown in any safe and regular govern- 
ment. He will therefore be unsupported by proper infor- 
mation and advice, and will generally be directed by minions 
and favorites ; or he will become a tool to the Senate — or 
a Council of State will grow out of the principal officers of 
the great departments ; the worst and most dangerous of all 
ingredients for such a Council in a free country. From 
this fatal defect has arisen the improper power of the Senate 
in the appointment of pubUc officers, and the alarming de- 
pendence and connection between that branch of the legis- 
lature and the supreme Executive. 

Hence also sprung that unnecessary officer the Vice- 
President, who for want of other employment is made 
president of the Senate, thereby dangerously blending the 
executive and legislative powers, besides always giving to 
some one of the States an unnecessary and unjust pre- 
eminence over the others. 

The President of the United States has the unrestrained 



the executive 
and legisla- 
tive, he de- 
clined to sign 
the instru- 
ment framed. 
The extract 
is an example 
of numerous 
similar argu- 
ments. — For 
text of the 
Constitution, 
see American 
History Leaf- 
lets, No. 8. — 
For the Fed- 
eral Conven- 
tion, see Am. 
Hist. Studies, 
Nos. s, 6; 
Contempora- 
ries, III. 

This objec- 
tion has been 
disproved by 
experience. 

Not well 
founded. 

This has not 
come to pass. 

The cabinet 
has not as- 
sumed this 
power. 



The word 
dangerous, 
as applied to 
anything re- 
lating to the 
vice-presi- 
dential office, 



174 



Confederation 



[1787 



causes a 
smile at the 
present day. 



The tariff 
laws were 
later a cause 
of complaint 
by the South. 



The " neces- 
sary and 
proper " 
clause, ever 
since much 
disputed. 

The lack of a 
Bill of Rights 
was a fre- 
quent criti- 
cism, and led 
to the first 
ten amend- 
ments to the 
Constitution, 



power of granting pardons for treason, which may be some- 
times exercised to screen from punishment those whom he 
had secretly instigated to commit the crime, and thereby 
prevent a discovery of his own guilt. 

By declaring all treaties supreme laws of the land, the 
Executive and the Senate have, in many cases, an exclusive 
power of legislation ; which might have been avoided by 
proper distinctions with respect to treaties, and requiring the 
assent of the House of Representatives, where it could be 
done with safety. 

By requiring only a majority to make all commercial and 
navigation laws, the five Southern States, whose produce 
and circumstances are totally different from that of the eight 
Northern and Eastern States, may be ruined, for such rigid 
and premature regulations may be made as will enable the 
merchants of the Northern and Eastern States not only to 
demand an exhorbitant freight, but to monopolize the pur- 
chase of the commodities at their own price, for many years, 
to the great injury of the landed interest, and impoverish- 
ment of the people ; and the danger is the greater as the 
gain on one side will be in proportion to the loss on the 
other. Whereas requiring two-thirds of the members pres- 
ent in both Houses would have produced mutual moderation, 
promoted the general interest, and removed an insuperable 
objection to the adoption of this government. 

Under their own construction of the general clause, at 
the end of the enumerated powers, the Congress may grant 
monopolies in trade and commerce, constitute new crimes, 
inflict unusual and severe punishments, and extend their 
powers as far as they shall think proper ; so that the State 
legislatures have no security for the powers now presumed 
to remain to them, or the people for their rights. 

There is no declaration of any kind, for preserving the 
liberty of the press, or the trial by jury in civil causes ; nor 
against the danger of standing armies in time of peace. 



No. 69] Constitution Criticized 175 

The State legislatures are restrained from laying export 
duties on tlieir own produce. 

Both the general legislature and the State legislature are Laws made 
expressly prohibited making ex post facto laws ; though ^'j^^^cg j^ 
there never was nor can be a legislature but must and will committed, 
make such laws, when necessity and the public safety require 
them ; which will hereafter be a breach of all the constitu- 
tions in the Union, and afford precedents for other innova- 
tions. 

This government will set out a moderate aristocracy : it is 
at present impossible to foresee whether it will, in its opera- 
tion, produce a monarchy, or a corrupt, tyrannical aristoc- 
racy ; it will most probably vibrate some years between the 
two, and then terminate in the one or the other. 

The general legislature is restrained from prohibiting the Slave-trade 
further importation of slaves for twenty odd years ; though jSoS.' ' ^ '" 
such importations render the United States weaker, more 
vulnerable, and less capable of defence. 

Draft of the original manuscript, in Kate Mason Rowland, 
The Life of George Mason (New York, etc., 1892), II, 
387-390. 



69. The Political Harvest Time (1788) 

HON. Mr. Smith. Mr. President, I am a plain man 
and get my living by the plough. I am not used to 
speak in publick, but I beg your leave to say a few words to 
my brother plough-joggers in this house. I have lived in a 
part of the country where I have known the worth of good 
government by the want of it. There was a black cloud 
that rose in the east last winter, and spread over the west. 
{^He7-e Mr. Widgery interrupted. Mr. President, I wish to 
know what the gentleman fneans by the east.) I mean, sir, 



By Colonel 
Jonathan 
B. Smith, a 
member of 
the Massa- 
chusetts con- 
vention of 
178S, which 
ratified the 
Constitution 
of the United 
States. His 
speech is a 
good ex- 
ample of the 
common- 
sense argu- 



76 



Confederation 



[1788 



ment of the 
plain practi- 
cal man in 
favor of a 
national con- 
stitution, be- 
sides being a 
remarkable 
piece of good 
English. — 
For the State 
ratifying con- 
ventions, see 
Contempora- 
ries, 111. 



The Shays's 
Rebellion of 
1786-87. 



Adopted in 
1780. 



the county of Bristol ; the cloud rose there and burst upon 
us, and produced a dreadful effect. It brought on a state 
of anarchy, and that leads to tyratmy. I say it brought 
anarchy. People that used to live peaceably, and were 
before good neighbours, got distracted and took up arms 
against government. {Here Mr. Kingsley called to order, 
and asked ivhat had the history of last zvinter to do ivith the 
Constitution ? Several gentlemeti, and among the rest the 
Hon. Mr. Adams, said the gentleman was in order — let him 
go on in his own way.) I am a going, Mr. President, to 
shew you, my brother farmers, what were the effects of 
anarchy, that you may see the reasons why I wish for good 
government. People, I say took up arms, and then if you 
went to speak to them, you had the musket of death pre- 
sented to your breast. They would rob you of your property, 
threaten to burn your houses ; oblige you to be on your 
guard night and day ; alarms spread from town to town ; 
families were broke up ; the tender mother would cry, O my 
son is among them ! What shall I do for my child ! Some 
were taken captive, children taken out of their schools and 
carried away. Then we should hear of an action, and the 
poor prisoners were set in the front, to be killed by their own 
friends. How dreadful, how distressing was this ! Our dis- 
tress was so great that we should have been glad to catch at 
any thing that looked like a government for protection. 
Had any person, that was able to protect us, come and set 
up his standard we should all have flocked to it, even if it 
had been a monarch, and that monarch might have proved 
a tyrant, so that you see that anarchy leads to tyranny, and 
better have one tyrant than so many at once. 

Now, Mr. President, when I saw this Constitution, I found 
that it was a cure for these disorders. It was just such a 
thing as we wanted. I got a copy of it and read it over and 
over. I had been a member of the Convention to form our 
own state Constitution, and had learnt something of the 



No. 69] Constitution Advocated 177 

checks and balances of power, and I found them all here. 
I did not go to any lawyer, to ask his opinion, we have no 
lawyer in our town, and we do well enough without. I 
formed my own opinion, and was pleased with this Consti- 
tution. My honourable old daddy there {pointing to Mr. 
Singletary) won't think that I expect to be a Congress-man, 
and swallow up the liberties of the people. I never had any 
post, nor do I want one, and before I am done you will think 
that I don't deserve one. But I don't think the worse of 
the Constitution because lawyers, and men of learning and 
monied men, are fond of it. I don't suspect that they want 
to get into Congress and abuse their power. I am not of 
such a jealous make ; they that are honest men themselves 
are not apt to suspect other people. I don't know why our 
constituents have not as good a right to be as jealous of us, 
as we seem to be of the Congress, and I think those gentle- 
men who are so very suspicious, that as soon as a man gets 
into power he turns rogue, had better look at liome. 

We are by this Constitution allowed to send te7i members 
to Congress. Have we not more than that number fit to 
go ? I dare say if we pick out ten, we shall have another 
ten left, and I hope ten times ten, and will not these be a 
check upon those that go ; Will they go to Congress and 
abuse their power and do mischief, when they know that 
they must return and look the other ten in the face, and be 
called to account for their conduct ? Some gentlemen think 
that our liberty and property is not safe in the hands of 
monied men, and men of learning, I am not of that mind. 

Brother farmers, let us suppose a case now — suppose you 
had a farm of 50 acres, and your title was disputed, and there 
was a farm of 5000 acres joined to you that belonged to a 
man of learning, and his title was involved in the same diffi- 
culty ; would not you be glad to have him for your friend, 
rather than to stand alone in the dispute? Well, the case is 
the same, these lawyers, these monied men, these men of 



178 



Confederation 



[1788 



learning, are all embarked in the same cause with us, and we 
must all swim or sink together ; and shall we throw the Con- 
stitution ov^er-board, because it does not please us alike? 
Suppose two or three of you had been at the pains to break 
up a piece of rough land, and sow it with wheat — would you 
let it lay waste, because you could not agree what sort of a 
fence to make ? would it not be better to put ap[up] a fence 
that did not please every one's fancy rather than not fence it 
at all, or keep disputing about it, until the wild beast came 
in and devoured it. Some gentlemen say, don't be in a 
hurry — take time to consider, and don't take a leap in the 
dark. — I say take things in time — gather fruit when it is 
ripe. There is a time to sow and a time to reap ; we sowed 
our seed when we sent men to the federal convention, now 
is the harvest, now is the time to reap the fruit of our labour, 
and if we don't do it now I am afraid we never shall have 
another opportunity. 

Debates, Resolutions and other Proceedings, of the Convention of 
the Cotnmonwealth of Massachusetts, 1788 (reported by Ben- 
jamin Russell, Boston, 1788), 132-134. 



By Francis 

HOPKINSON 

(1737-1791), 
signer of the 
Declaration 
of Indepen- 
dence, one of 
the commit- 
tee to draft 
the Articles 
of Confed- 
eration, 
member of 
the Conti- 
nental Con- 
gress, and 
later judge in 
Pennsylva- 
nia. He was 



70. "The New Roof" (1788) 
"a song for federal mechanics." 

I. 

COME muster, my lads, your mechanical tools, 
Your saws and your axes, your hammers and rules; 
Bring your mallets and planes, your level and line. 
And plenty of pins of American pine : • 
For our roof we will raise, aftd our song still shall be, 
Our governme tit firm, and our citizens free. 



Ko. 70] 



The New Roof 



179 



II. 

Come, up with the plates, lay them firm on the wall, 

Like the people at large, they're the ground work of all ; 

Examine them well, and see that they're sound, 

Let no rotten part in our building be found : 

For our 7-0 of we will raise, and our song still shall be 

A government firm, and our citizens free. 



III. 

Now hand up the girders, lay each in his place, 
Between them \}a.t joists, must divide all the space; 
Like assemblymen these should lie level along. 
Like girders, our senate prove loyal and strong : 
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be 
A government firm over citizens free. 



one of the 
earliest 
American 
humorists, 
and besides 
wrote much 
in prose and 
verse to favor 
the cause of 
indepen- 
dence. The 
phrase" New 
Roof" was 
popularly 
applied to 
the Constitu- 
tion.— For 
Hopkinson, 
see Contem- 
poraries, II, 
Nos. 96, 196. 
— For the 
going into 
effect of the 
Constitution, 
see Contem- 
poraries, III. 



IV. 

The rafters now frame ; your king-posts and braces, 
And drive your pins home, to keep all in their places ; 
Let wisdom and strength in the fabric combine. 
And your pins be all made of American pine : 
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be, 
A government firm over citizens free. 



V. 

Our king-posts zxq fudges ; how upright they stand, 
Supporting the braces ; the laws of the land : 
The laws of the land, which divide right from wrong, 
And strengthen the weak, by weak'ning the strong : 
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be, 
Laws equal and fust, for a people that's free. 



i8o 



Confederation 



[1788 



The exact 
date of the 
piece is in 
doubt, but 
the allusion 
to " States " 
marks it as 
written about 
the time of 
the Federal 
Convention. 



VI. 

Up ! up ! with the rafters ; each frame is a state : 
How nobly they rise ! their span, too, how great ! 
From the north to the south, o'er the whole they extend, 
And rest on the walls, whilst the walls they defend : 
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be 
Combined in strength, yet as citizens free. 

VII. 

Now enter the purlins, and drive your pins through ; 
And see that your joints are drawn home and all true. 
The ptwlins will bind all the rafters together : 
The strength of the whole shall defy wind and weather: 
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be, 
United as states, but as citizens free. 

VIII. 

Come, raise up the turret; our glory and pride ; 
In the centre it stands, o'er the whole Xo preside : 
The sons of Columbia shall view with delight 
Its pillar's, and arches, and towering height : 
Our roof is now rais'd, and our song still shall be, 
A federal head o'er a people thafs free. 



IX. 

Huzza ! my brave boys, our work is complete ; 
The world shall admire Columbia's fair seat ; 
Its strength against tempest and time shall be proof, 
And thousands shall come to dwell under our roof: 
Whilst we drain the deep bowl, our toast still shall be 
Our government firm, and our citizens free. 

Francis Hopkinson, Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writ- 
ings (Philadelphia, 1792), II, 320-322. 



CHAPTER XI — MAKING A GOVERN- 
MENT, 1789-1801 

71. A Democratic View of Washington 
(1789-1790) 



T 



^HE President advanced between the Senate 
and Representatives, bowing to each. He 
was placed in the chair by the Vice-President ; the Senate 
with their president on the right, the Speaker and the 
Representatives on his left. The Vice-President rose and 
addressed a short sentence to him. The import of it was 
that he should now take the oath of office as President. 
He seemed to have forgot half what he was to say, for he 
made a dead pause and stood for some time, to appearance, 
in a vacant mood. He finished with a formal bow, and the 
President was conducted out of the middle window into the 
gallery, and the oath was administered by the Chancellor. 
Notice that the business done was communicated to the 
crowd by proclamation, etc., who gave three cheers, and 
repeated it on the President's bowing to them. 

As the company returned into the Senate chamber, the 
President took the chair and the Senators and Representa- 
tives their seats. He rose, and all arose also, and addressed 
them. This great man was agitated and embarrassed more 
than ever he was by the leveled cannon or pointed musket. 
He trembled, and several times could scarce make out to 
read, though it must be supposed he had often read it before. 
He put part of the fingers of his left hand into the side of 
what I think the tailors call the fall of the breeches, chang- 
.m^ the paper into his left hand. After some time he then 



By Senator 
William 
Maclay 
(1737-1804), 
senator from 
Pennsylvania 
in 1789-91. 
He had 
served both 
in the French 
and Indian 
and in the 
Revolution- 
ary war. In 
Congress he 
was noted for 
extreme 
democratic 
views, and 
he soon 
became a 
leader of the 
opposition to 
Washington. 
His journal 
presents a 
graphic 
picture of the 
social and 
political life 
of the period, 
enlivened 
though some- 
what dis- 
torted by the 
violent preju- 
dices of the 
author. It is 
the only ac- 
count that we 
have of the 
debates ot the 
Senate dur- 
ing the First 
Congress, 



1 8 2 The New Government [1789-1790 



for it sat in 
secret ses- 
sion. This 
piece first 
describes 
Washing- 
ton's inaugu- 
ration, April 
30, 1789. — On 
Washington, 
see above, 
Nos. 39, 59. 
— On the or- 
ganization of 
the federal 
government, 
see American 
Orations, 

1.75-143; 
Contempora- 
ries, III, ch. 



A usual cere- 
mony at that 
time. 



did the same with some of the fingers of his right hand. 
When he came to the words a/I the rvorhi, he made a flourish 
with his right hand, which left rather an ungainly impression, 
I sincerely, for my part, wished all set ceremony in the hands 
of the dancing-masters, and that this first of men had read 
off his address in the plainest manner, without ever taking 
his eyes from the paper, for I felt hurt that he was not first 
in everything. He was dressed in deep brown, with metal 
buttons, with an eagle on them, white stockings, a bag, and 
sword. . . . 

[Aug. 27.] Senate adjourned early. At a little after four 
I called on Mr. Bassett, of the Delaware State. We went to 
the President's to dinner. . . . The President and Mrs. 
Washington sat opposite each other in the middle of the 
table ; the two secretaries, one at each end. It was a great 
dinner, and the best of the kind I ever was at. The room, 
however, was disagreeably warm. 

First was the soup ; fish roasted and boiled ; meats, gam- 
mon, fowls, etc. This was the dinner. The middle of the 
table was garnished in the usual tasty way, with small images, 
flowers (artificial), etc. The dessert was, first apple-pies, 
pudding, etc. ; then iced creams, jellies, etc. ; then water- 
melons, musk-melons, apples, peaches, nuts. 

It was the most solemn dinner ever I sat at. Not a health 
drank ; scarce a word said until the cloth was taken away. 
Then the President, filling a glass of wine, with great formal- 
ity drank to the health of every individual by name round the 
table. Everybody imitated him, charged glasses, and such 
a buzz of " health, sir," and " health, madam," and " thank 
you, sir," and " thank you, madam," never had I heard be- 
fore. Indeed, I had liked to have been thrown out in the 
hurry ; but I got a little wine in my glass, and passed the 
ceremony. The ladies sat a good while, and the bottles 
passed about ; but there was a dead silence almost. Mrs. 
Washincfton at last withdrew with the ladies. 



No. 72] President Washington 183 

I expected the men would now begin, but the same still- 
ness remained. The President told of a New England 
clergyman who had lost a hat and wig in passing a river 
called the Brunks. He smiled, and everybody else laughed. 
He now and then said a sentence or two on some common 
subject, and what he said was not amiss. . . . The Presi- 
dent kept a fork in his hand, when the cloth was taken away, 
I thought for the purpose of picking nuts. He ate no nuts, 
however, but played with the fork, striking on the edge of 
the table with it. We did not sit long after the ladies re- 
tired. The President rose, went up-stairs to drink coffee ; 
the company followed. I took my hat and came home. . . . 

This was levee day, and I accordingly dressed and did 
the needful. It is an idle thing, but what is the hfe of men 
but folly ? — and this is perhaps as innocent as any of them, 
so far as respects the persons acting. The practice, how- 
ever, considered as a feature of royalty, is certainly anti- 
republican. This certainly escapes nobody. The royalists 
glory in it as a point gained. Republicans are borne down 
by fashion and a fear of being charged with a want of respect 
to General Washington. If there is treason in the wish I 
retract it, but would to God this same General Washington 
were in heaven ! We would not then have him brought for- 
ward as the constant cover to every unconstitutional and 
irrepubhcan act. 

William Maclay, Journal (edited by Edgar S. Maclay, New 
York, 1890), 8-351 passim. 



Dec. 14, 1790; 
the Levee 
was the 
President's 
pubUc lecep)- 
tion. 



Even Wash- 
ington did 
not escape 
calumny. 



72. Speech on the Tariff (1789) 



By Fisher 

Ames (1758- 
1808), a 

HEN it was asked, What is the occasion of a high eraiist, for 
duty? it was answered, that it is necessary in order eight years a 

•' ' •' member of 

to come at the proper tax on rum ; but I insist that there is Congress 



w 



184 The New Government [1789 



from Massa- 
chusetts. 
This speech 
was made in 
a debate on 
what after- 
ward be- 
came the first 
tariff act. 
Massachu- 
setts opposed 
the taxing of 
hemp, flax, 
and molas- 
ses, the two 
former being 
used for ship 
cordage, the 
latter as a 
" raw mate- 
rial " in the 
manufacture 
of New Eng- 
land rum. — 
For Ames, 
see American 
Orations, I, 
112 (another 
speech), 359. 
— On the 
tariff dis- 
cussion, see 
American 
Orations, 
III, IV; 
Contempora- 
ries, III, IV; 
American 
History 
Studies, 
No. II. 



no such necessity, while an excise is within our reach ; and 
it is in this mode only that you can obtain any considerable 
revenue. The gentleman from Virginia has said that the 
manufacture of country rum is in no kind of danger from 
the duty on molasses. He has stated to the House the 
quantity made before the Revolution, and goes on to argue 
that as West India rum paid no duty, and molasses paid 
some, if the manufacture thrived under these disadvantages, 
why should it not continue to support itself in future? . . . 
Mr. Speaker, we are not to consider molasses in the same 
light as if it were in the form of rum. We are not to tax a 
necessary of life in the same manner as we do a pernicious 
luxury. I am sensible an attempt to draw a critical line of 
distinction in this case, between what is necessary and what 
is a luxury, will be attended with some difficulty ; but I con- 
ceive the distinction sufficient for our present purpose, if it 
prove molasses to be necessary for the subsistence of the 
people. No decent family can do without something by 
way of sweetening ; whether this arises from custom or 
necessity of nature, is not worth the inquiry ; if it is admitted 
to be a requisite for the support of life, a tax on it will be 
the same as a tax on bread ; it is repugnant to the first 
principles of policy to lay taxes of this nature in America. 
What is it that entitles the United States to take rank of all 
the nations in Europe, but because it is the best country for 
the poor to live in? If we go on taxing such articles as salt 
and molasses, these advantages will not long continue to be 
ours. It may be said that sugar is also a necessary of life : 
true, but molasses, inasmuch as it is cheaper, can be more 
easily obtained, and enters more into consumption, at least 
of the poor. They apply it to various uses ; it is a substi- 
tute for malt, in making beer ; and shall it be said that the 
General Government descends to small beer for its revenue, 
while strong beer remains duty free? Why shall this dif- 
ference be made between the common drink of one part of 



No. 72] The First Tariff 185 

the continent and the other, unless it be with a view to 
drive the people to drinking simple water? The gentleman 
from Virginia contends that the consumers of eight pounds 
of sugar pay more than those who use eight pounds of 
molasses ; this may be true, but from the variety of ways in 
which molasses is used, eight pounds is sooner consumed 
than six or four pounds of sugar, which makes up the dif- 
ference. But do gentlemen mean that the poorest and 
weakest part of the community shall pay as much for what 
they use as the richer classes? Is this the reward of their 
toil and industry? . . . 

The question is plainly reducible to this : Shall we tax a 
necessary of life in the same proportion as a luxury ? Gen- 
tlemen will not contend for either the justice or policy of 
such a measure ; but they say the necessity of the case 
obliges them ; they cannot come at the luxury but through 
the raw material. They say they cannot lay an excise. I.e. duty on 
I ask, Why not? People may justly think it burden- jact^e'of" 
some to raise all our supplies from impost. Much can be spirits. 
obtained from this source, to be sure, by touching every 
thing ; but I would recommend touching such things as are 
essential to subsistence lightly, and bring in the excise as a 
means of obtaining the deficiency ; it will be the more cer- 
tain way of making country rum contribute its proportion. 
I am not against a duty in this shape ; but if the hand of 
government is stretched out to oppress the various interests 
I have enumerated by an unequal and oppressive tax on the 
necessaries of life, I fear we shall destroy the fond hopes 
entertained by our constituents that this government would 
insure their rights, extend their commerce, and protect 
their manufactures. Mothers will tell their children, when A curious bit 

,..,.,., , . , , of uncon- 

they solicit their daily and accustomed nutriment, that the scious hu- 

new laws forbid them the use of it ; and they will grow up "^°'"- 

in a detestation of the hand which proscribes their innocent '■'^■J^^'^ °'^^"" 

i pation ot dis- 

food, and the occupation of their fathers ; the language of tilling rum. 



1 86 The New Government [1790 

complaint will circulate universally, and change the favorable 
opinion now entertained to dislike and clamor. 

The House will not suppose we are actuated by local in- 
terests in opposing a measure big with such dangerous con- 
sequences to the existence of the Union. They will admit 
we have reason for persisting in our opposition to a high 
duty, and may be inclined to join us in reducing it either to 
five per cent or at most to one cent per gallon. If the ap- 
prehensions we have expressed shall be reahzed, let it rest 
upon the advocates of the present measure ; we have done 
our duty, and it only remains for us to submit to that ruin in 
which the whole may be involved. 

Fisher Ames, Speeches (edited by Pelhatn W. Ames, Boston, 
1871), 13-18 passim. 



By Secre- 
tary OK 
State 
Thomas 

lEFFERSON 

(I743-I826), 

later the third 
President of 
the United 
States. Alex- 
ander Hamil- 
ton was at 
this time Sec- 
retary of the 
Treasury. 
The enmity 
between tiie 
two men had 
not reached 
that acute 
stage which 
later would 
have made 
any compro- 
mise between 
them impos- 
sible. The 
issue was the 
assumption 



73. A Question of Compromise (1790) 

THIS measure [the assumption of State debts] produced 
the most bitter & angry contests ever known in Con- 
gress, before or since the union of the states. I arrived in 
the midst of it. But a stranger to the ground, a stranger to 
the actors on it, so long absent as to have lost all familiarity 
with the subject, and as yet unaware of it's object, I took no 
concern in it. The great and trying question however was 
lost in the H. of Representatives. So high were the feuds 
excited by this subject, that on it's rejection, business was 
suspended. Congress met and adjourned from day to day 
without doing any thing, the parties being too much out of 
temper to do business together. The Eastern members par- 
ticularly, who, with Smith from South Carolina, were the 
principal gamblers in these scenes, threatened a secession 
and dissolution. Hamilton was in despair. As I was going 
to the President's one day, I met him in the street. He 



No. 73] Assumption and Capital 187 



walked me backwards & forwards before the President's 
door for half an hour. He painted pathetically the temper 
into which the legislature had been wrought, the disgust of 
those who were called the Creditor states, the danger of the 
secession of their members, and the separation of the states. 
He observed that the members of the administration ought 
to act in concert, that tho' this question was not of my de- 
partment, yet a common duty should make it a common 
concern ; that the President was the center on which all ad- 
ministrative questions ultimately rested, and that all of us 
should rally around him, and support with joint efforts 
measures approved by him ; and that the question having 
been lost by a small majority only, it was probable that an 
appeal from me to the judgment and discretion of some of 
my friends might effect a change in the vote, and the machine 
of government, now suspended, might be again set into 
motion. I told him that I was really a stranger to the 
whole subject ; not having yet informed myself of the system 
of finances adopted, I knew not how far this was a necessary 
sequence ; that undoubtedly if it's rejection endangered a 
dissolution of our union at this incipient stage, I should 
deem that the most unfortunate of all consequences, to avert 
which all partial and temporary evils should be yielded. I 
proposed to him however to dine with me the next day, and 
I would invite another friend or two, bring them into con- 
ference together, and I thought it impossible that reasonable 
men, consulting together coolly, could fail, by some mutual 
sacrifices of opinion, to form a compromise which was to 
save the union. The discussion took place. I could take 
no part in it, but an exhortatory one, because I was a 
stranger to the circumstances which should govern it. But 
it was finally agreed that, whatever importance had been 
attached to the rejection of this proposition, the preservation 
of the union, & and of concord among the states was more 
important, and that therefore it would be better that the 



of twenty 
millions of 
State debts, 
desired by 
Northern 
capitalists, 
and the fixing 
of the Capital 
on the Poto- 
mac, desired 
by the South. 
The extract 
was written 
by [efferson 
some time 
after the 
event, and 
may be a 
little colored 
by prejudice. 
He had just 
returned from 
abroad. 
— On Jeffer- 
son, see 
American 
Orations, I, 
366 ; Contem- 
poraries, III, 
eh. . — On 
the Capital 
and assump- 
tion of State 
debts, see 
Contempora- 
ries, III, 
Nos. 



So in the 
original. 



1 88 The New Government [175^. 

vote of rejection should be rescinded, to effect which some 
members should change their votes. But it was observed 
that this pill would be peculiarly bitter to the Southern 
States, and that some concomitant measure should be 
adopted to sweeten it a little to them. There had before 
been propositions to fix the seat of government either at 
Philadelphia, or at Georgetown on the Potomac ; and it was 
thought that by giving it to Philadelphia for ten years, and 
to Georgetown permanently afterwards, this might, as an 
anodyne, calm in some degree the ferment which might be 
excited by the other measure alone. So two of the Potomac 
members (White & Lee, but White with a revulsion of 
stomach almost convulsive) agreed to change their votes, & 
Hamilton undertook to carry the other point. In doing this 
the influence he had established over the Eastern members 
. . . effected his side of the engagement. And so the as- 
sumption was passed, and twenty millions of stock divided 
among favored states . . . 

Thomas Jefferson, The Aiias^ in his Writings (edited by P. L. 
Ford, New York, etc., 1892), I, 162-164. 



74. Maritime Grievances (1794) 

THE undersigned, envoy of the United States of Amer- 
ica, has the honour of representing to the Right Hon- 
orable Lord Grenville, his Britannic Majesty's Secretary of 
State for the Department of Foreign Affairs : 

That a very considerable number of American vessels 
have been irregularly captured, and as improperly con- 
demned by certain of his Majesty's ofificers and judges. 

That, in various instances, these captures and condem- 
nations were so conducted, and the captured placed under 



No. 74] Maritime Grievances 189 



such unfavourable circumstances, as that, for want of the 
securities required, and other obstacles, no appeals were 
made in certain cases, nor any claims in others. 

The undersigned presumes that these facts will appear 
from the documents which he has had the honour of sub- 
mitting to his Lordship's consideration ; and that it will not 
be deemed necessary, a.t present, to particularize these cases 
and their merits, or detail the circumstances which discrim- 
inate some from others. 

That great and extensive injuries having thus, under colour 
of his Majesty's authority and commissions, been done to a 
numerous class of American merchants, the United States 
can, for reparation, have recourse only to the justice, author- 
ity, and interposition of his Majesty. 

That the vessels and property taken and condemned 
nave been chiefly sold, and the proceeds divided among 
a great number of persons, of whom some are dead, some 
unable to make retribution, and others, from frequent remov- 
als and their particular circumstances, not easily reached 
by civil process. 

That as, for these losses and injuries, adequate compen- 
sation, by means of judicial proceedings, has become im- 
practicable, and, considering the causes which combined to 
produce them, the United States confide in his Majesty's 
justice and magnanimity to cause such compensation to be 
made to these innocent sufferers as may be consistent with 
equity ; and the undersigned flatters himself that such prin- 
ciples may, without difficulty, be adopted, as will serve as 
rules whereby to ascertain the cases and the amount of 
compensation. 

So grievous are the expenses and delays attending litigated 
suits, to persons whose fortunes have been so materially 
affected, and so great is the distance of Great Britain from 
America, that the undersigned thinks he ought to express 
his anxiety that a mode of proceeding as summary and 



under the 
Confedera- 
tion, Secre- 
tary of 
Foreign Af- 
fairs, an office 
which he re- 
signed to be- 
come Chief 
justice in 
1789. In 
1794 the 
country was 
on the brink 
of war with 
England, but 
the treaty 
which Jay 
negotiated 
with Lord 
Grenville, 
November 

19. 1794. 
averted war 
for some 
years. The 
piece is the 
full text of a 
memoran- 
dum laid by 
Jay before 
the British 
government ; 
it does not 
include the 
grievances of 
the retention 
of the frontier 
posts by Eng- 
land, the 
carrying 
away of 
slaves, and 
the withhold- 
ing of trade 
with the 
West Indies. 
— For I ay, 
see Contem- 
poraries, III, 
No. .— 
For maritime 
grievances, 
see American 
Orations, I, 
84-130; Con- 



190 The New Government [1794 



^^^po>^*'ies, \\\x\q expensive may be devised as circumstances and the 
peculiar hardship of these cases may appear to permit and 
require. 

And as (at least in some of these cases) it may be expe- 
dient and necessary, as well as just, that the sentences of the 
courts of vice-admiralty should be revised and corrected by 
the Court of Appeals here, the undersigned hopes it will 
appear reasonable to his Majesty to order that the captured 
in question (who have not already so done) be there ad- 
mitted to enter both their appeals and their claims. 

The undersigned also finds it to be his duty to represent 
that the irregularities before mentioned extended not only 
to the capture and condemnation of American vessels and 
property, and to unusual personal severities, but even to the 
impressment of American citizens to serve on board of armed 
vessels. He forbears to dwell on the injuries done to the 
down to 1812. unfortunate individuals, or on the e??iotio)is which they must 
No. 76. ' naturally excite, either in the breast of the nation to whom 
they belong, or of the just and humane of every country. 
His reliance on the justice and benevolence of his Majesty 
leads him to indulge a pleasing expectation that orders will 
be given that Americans so circumstanced be immediately 
liberated, and that persons honoured with his Majesty's 
commissions do, in future, abstain from similar violences. 

It is with cordial satisfaction that the undersigned reflects 
on the impressions which such equitable and conciliatory 
measures would make on the minds of the United States, 
and how naturally they would inspire and cherish those sen- 
timents and dispositions which never fail to preserve, as well 
as to produce, respect, esteem, and friendship. 

John Jay. 
London, July 30, 1794. 



The most 

serious 

grievance 



John Jay, Correspondence and Public Papers (edited by Henry 
P. Johnston, New York, etc, [1893]), IV, 38-41. 



No. 75] X Y Z Correspondence 191 



yS' "The X Y Z Despatches" (1797) 



A' 



Paris, October 22, 1797. 

LL of us having arrived at Paris on the even- 
ing of the 4th instant, on the next day we 
verbally, and unofficially, informed the Minister of Foreign 
Affairs therewith, and desired to know when he would be at 
leisure to receive one of our secretaries with the official 
notification. He appointed the next day at two o'clock, 
when Major Rutledge waited on him . . . 

In the evening . . . Mr. X. called on General Pinckney, 
and after having sat some time, * * * whispered him that 
he had a message from M. Talleyrand to communicate when 
he was at leisure. . . . General Pinckney said he should be 
glad to hear it. M. X. repHed that the Directory, and 
particularly two of the members of it, were exceedingly 
irritated at some passages of the President's speech, and 
desired that they should be softened ; and that this step 
would be necessary previous to our reception. That, be- 
sides this, a sum of money was required for the pocket of 
the Directory and ministers, which would be at the disposal 
of M. Talleyrand ; and that a loan would also be insisted on. 
M. X. said if we acceded to these measures, M. Talleyrand 
had no doubt that all our differences with France might be 
accommodated. . . . 

October the 21st, M. X. came before nine o'clock; M. 
Y. did not come until ten : he had passed the morning with 
M. Talleyrand. After breakfast the subject was immediately 
resumed. . . . He [M. Y.] said . . . that if we desired 
him to point out the sum which he believed would be satis- 
factory [to the Directory], he would do so. We requested 
him to proceed ; and he said that there were thirty-two 
millions of florins, of Dutch inscriptions, worth ten shillings 
in the pound, which might be assigned to us at twenty shil- 



By C. C. 

Pinckney 
(1746-1825), 
John 

Marshall 
(1755-1835), 
and 

Elbridge 
Gerry 
(1744-1814), 
sent to 
France in 
1797 as joint 
envoys to 
settle various 
disputed 
questions 
between the 
two govern- 
ments. 
Talleyrand, 
French 
Foreign 
Minister, re- 
fused to re- 
ceive them, 
but through 
secret agents 
{"X,""Y," 
and"Z") 
made an 
unofficial 
demand for 
bribes as a 
necessary 
preliminary 
to any settle- 
ment. The 
extracts are 
from the en- 
voys' de- 
spatches 
home, which 
were made 
public and 
caused war 
with France 
in 1798. 
They are an 
example of 
diplomatic 
correspond- 
ence. — For 
relations with 



192 The New Government [1797 



France, see 
Contempora- 
ries, II, Nos. 
199, 213, 216; 
III, ch. 



I.e. a bribe. 



The Ameri- 
can grievance 
was the ille- 
gal capture of 
American 
merchant- 
men ; the 
French 
grievance 
was that 
commercial 
privilege had 
been allowed 
to England. 
— See No. 
74, above. 



lings in the pound ; and he proceeded to state to us the 
certainty that, after a peace, the Dutch Government would 
repay us the money ; so that we should ultimately lose 
nothing, and the only operation of the measure would be, 
an advance from us to France of thirty-two millions, on the 
credit of the Government of Holland. We asked him 
whether the fifty thousand pounds sterling, as a douceur to 
the Directory, must be in addition to this sum. He an- 
swered in the affirmative. . . . 

We committed immediately to writing the answer we 
proposed, in the following words : " Our powers respecting 
a treaty are ample ; but the proposition of a loan, in the 
form of Dutch inscriptions, or in any other form, is not 
within the limits of our instructions ; upon this point, there- 
fore, the Government must be consulted ; one of the Ameri- 
can ministers will, for the purpose, forthwith embark for 
America ; provided the Directory will suspend all further 
captures on American vessels, and will suspend proceedings 
on those already captured, as well where they have been 
already condemned, as where the decisions have not yet 
been rendered ; and that where sales have been made, but 
the money not yet received by the captors, it shall not be 
paid until the preliminary questions, proposed to the minis- 
ters of the United States, be discussed and decided : " 
which was read as a verbal answer ; and we told them they 
might copy it if they pleased. M. Y. refused to do so ; his 
disappointment was apparent ; he said we treated the money 
part of the proposition as if it had proceeded from the 
Directory ; whereas, in fact, it did not proceed even from 
the minister, but was only a suggestion from himself, as a 
substitute to be proposed by us, in order to avoid the pain- 
ful acknowledgment that the Directory had determined to 
demand of us. It was told him that we understood that 
matter perfectly ; that we knew the proposition was in form 
to be ours ; but that it caine substantially from the minister. 



No. 75] X Y Z Correspondence 193 

We asked what had led to our present conversation ? And 
General Pmckney then repeated the first communication 
from M. X. . . . 

October, 27, 1797. 

About twelve we received another visit from M. X. . . . 
He mentioned the change in the state of things which had 
been produced by the peace with the emperor, as warrant- 
ing an expectation of a change in our system ; to which we 
only replied, that this event had been expected by us, and 
would not, in any degree, affect our conduct. M. X. urged, 
that the Directory had, since this peace, taken a higher and 
more decided tone with respect to us, and all other neutral 
nations, than had been before taken ; that it had been 
determined, that all nations should aid them, or be con- 
sidered and treated as their enemies. We answered, that 
such an effect had already been contemplated by us, as 
probable, and had not been overlooked when we gave to 
this proposition our decided answer ; and further, that we 
had no powers to negotiate for a loan of money ; that our 
Government had not contemplated such a circumstance in 
any degree whatever ; that if we should stipulate a loan, it 
would be a perfectly void thing, and would only deceive 
France, and expose ourselves. M. X. again expatiated on 
the power and violence of France : he urged the danger of 
our situation, and pressed the policy of softening them, and 
of thereby obtaining time. The present men, he said, 
would very probably not continue long in power, and it 
would be very unfortunate if those who might succeed, with 
better dispositions towards us, should find the two nations 
in actual war. We answered, that if war should be made on 
us by France, it would be so obviously forced on us, that, on 
a change of men, peace might be made with as much 
facility as the present differences could be accommodated. 
We added, that all America deprecated a war with France ; 
but that our present situation was more ruinous to us than 



194 The New Government [1799 



The French 
were furious 
because the 
Jay treaty 
had averted 
war. — See 
above, No. 74. 



Pinckney 
and Mar- 
shall soon 
withdrew ; 
Gerry re- 
mained, but 
was speedily 
ordered 
home. 



a declared war could be ; that at present our commerce was 
plundered unprotected ; but that if war was declared, we 
should seek the means of protection. M. X. said, he hoped 
we should not form a connexion with Britain ; and we 
answered, that we hoped so too ; that we had all been 
engaged in our Revolutionary war, and felt its injuries ; 
that it had made the deepest impression on us ; but that if 
France should attack us, w-e must seek the best means of 
self-defence. M. X. again returned to the subject of 
money : Said he, gentlemen, you do not speak to the 
point ; it is money : it is expected that you will offer money. 
We said that we had spoken to that point very explicitly : 
we had given an answer. No, said he, you have not : what 
is your answer ? We replied, it is no ; no ; not a six- 
pence. . . . 



Atnericaft State Papers, Foreign Relations (edited by Walter 
Lowrie and Matthew St. Clair Clarke, Washington, 1832), 
II, 157-161 passim. 



By Richard 

Carter 
(born 1774). 
By ancient 
custom tlie 
English navy 
had the right 
to compel 
English sail- 
ors to serve; 
after the 
Revolution 
it insisted 
that men 
born in Eng- 
land but 
naturalized in 
the United 
States were 
also liable, 
and took 



76. A Case of Impressment (1799) 

Jamaica, ss. 

RICHARD CARTER, mariner, one of the seamen of 
and belonging to the ship called the Pomona, of the 
port of Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, one of the United 
States of North America, being duly sworn, maketh oath and 
saith, that he, this deponent, was born in Kittery in the State 
of Massachusetts, in North America, on or about the twelfth 
day of June, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-four, 
and is a citizen of the United States of North America, and 
had a regular certificate thereof, signed by the proper officer, 
a true copy whereof is hereunto annexed ; and this deponent 



No. 76] 



Impressment 



195 



saith, on or about the twenty-third day of April last, he 
shipped as a seaman on board the said ship Pomona, at 
Portsmouth aforesaid, for a voyage from thence to Jamaica, 
and back, and accordingly departed in the said ship on the 
said voyage, and arrived in Kingston, Jamaica, on or about 
the seventh day of June instant, where the cargo was to be 
discharged ; and this deponent saith, that while he was em- 
ployed in his duty as a seaman, assisting in discharging the 
cargo of the said ship Pomona, on the eleventh day of this 
instant, June, he was taken and seized by a press-gang, 
belonging to His Britannic Majesty's ship of war the Bruns- 
wick, and forcibly carried away, notwithstanding this depo- 
nent represented to the officer who commanded tlie said 
press gang, that he was an American citizen, and had a reg- 
ular certificate thereof on board the said ship Pomona ; and 
this deponent saith he was violently forced into a boat and 
struck twice with a drawn cutlass, by one of the officers with 
the said press gang, and two men with pistols and hangers 
placed over this deponent, who loaded their pistols in the 
presence of deponent, and threatened to blow out his brains 
if he attempted to move or to speak ; and then they carried 
this deponent, and also John Edes, one of the seamen of 
the ship Thomas and Sarah, an American citizen whom they 
had also seized, on board the said ship of war the Bruns- 
wick : and this deponent saith, on getting on board the 
Brunswick, this deponent, and the said John Edes, were 
ordered to go on the quarter deck, where Mr. Harris, the 
first lieutenant of the said ship, abused this deponent and 
the said John Edes, and gave them in charge to the master 
of the said ship, while he went to look for the boatswain's 
mate, and soon after returned with the boatswain's mate, 
whom he ordered to take this deponent and the said John 
Edes, and to beat them ; in obedience to which orders, the 
said John Edes and this deponent were severely beaten, 
particularly this deponent, the said boatswain's mate doub- 



them off mer- 
chant ships 
on the open 
seas. When 
war broke 
out between 
France and 
England, in 
1793, the 
practice 
began on a 
large scale. 
This account 
describes one 
case out of 
hundreds of 
violence and 
hardship. 
Impressment 
was the main 
cause of the 
war of 1812, 
but was not 
mentioned in 
the Treaty of 
Ghent. — On 
this and 
other aggres- 
sions on neu- 
tral trade, see 
above, No. 
74; below, 
Nos. 79, 81, 
83- 

Carter could 
not properly 
be taken even 
on the ex- 
treme British 
ground. 

Certificates 
were issued 
to undoubted 
citizens, as a 
means of 
protection. 



196 The New Government [1799 



This is a 
good exam- 
ple of sworn 
affidavits as 
historical 
material. 



ling a rope of about three inches and a half thick, and beat- 
ing this deponent with great violence over the head, face, 
neck, shoulders, back, and stomach, until he had tired him- 
self, and then he gave the same rope to one of the mariners 
of the said ship Brunswick, and he also severely beat this 
deponent in the same manner ; and this deponent saith, he 
received upwards of a hundred blows, and was thereby 
greatly bruised, and his face cut, and his stomach as well 
externally as internally much injured, so that this deponent 
brought up a quantity of blood for several days after ; and 
this deponent saith, that notwithstanding he had been so 
cruelly treated, he was compelled to assist in hoisting in the 
boats belonging to the said ship ; and this deponent saith, 
that Nathaniel Kennerd, the master of the said ship Pomona, 
immediately after this deponent was seized by the press 
gang, went to the said ship Brunswick, and arrived on board 
just before this deponent ; and the said Nathaniel Kennerd 
took with him the certificate of this deponent being an 
American citizen, and submitted the same to the said Lieu- 
tenant Harris ; and this deponent saith, he did not give any 
provocation or commit any offence whatever to authorize or 
induce the treatment which he received as above stated ; 
and this deponent saith, he was forcibly detained on board 
the said ship Brunswick for the space of ten days, when he 
was brought back to the Pomona, in consequence of a writ 
of habeas corpus having been sued forth on behalf of this 
deponent. 

RICHARD CARTER. 

Sworn before me (being first duly stamped) this 25th day 
of June, 1799. ^VM. SAVAGE. 



American State Papers, Foreign Relations (edited by Walter 
Lowrie and Matthew St. Clair Clarke, Washington, 1832), 
11, 273. 



CHAPTER XII— JEFFERSON'S 
POLICY, 1801-1808 

'j'j. Election of Jefferson (1801) 

IT is probable, that the persons who compose this audience, 
have never met to celebrate the anniversary of American 
Independence, with sensations, similar to those which they 
experience this day. Since the last year, the administration 
of our national government has gone into the hands of men, 
whom the generahty of the people of New-England have 
long viewed as its enemies — men, whose principles, and 
practices, we have both feared, and reprobated. A change 
of this sort, in a country like this, could not have been 
wrought without a violent struggle. One side grasping at 
power, and emolument; the other eagerly endeavouring to 
save their constitution, and country, exhibit to our view a 
state of things which presupposes passion, strife and tumult. 
Success having crowned the exertions of the party, which 
with no small share of parade assumes the title of Rupubli- 
can*; but which, in more correct, and definite phraseology, 
is called Jacobinical ; the Federalists, a class of men, to 
which I trust the most of us are still proud to belong, 
prudently, and justly yielded to a Constitutional Election of 
Chief Magistrates, and resolved to wait for events, which to 
the eye of reason, and common foresight, could not be far 
distant. The inaugural speech of the new President, was, I 
believe, very consonant to the feelings, and wishes, of his 
political opponents. For tho' it contained no specific 
engagements, relative to the course which the administration 
intended to pursue ; yet it approached so near to this point, 

* So in the original. 
197 



By THEO- 
DORE 

DWIGHT 
(1764-1846), 
brother of 
Timothy 
Dwight, who 
was president 
of Yale Col- 
lege. Dwight 
was at one 
time editor of 
the Connecti- 
cut Alirror, 
the leading 
Federalist 
organ of 
Connecticut. 
This ex- 
tract, from 
his Fourth of 
July oration 
before the 
Connecticut 
Society of the 
Cincinnati, 
is an ex- 
treme ex- 
pression of 
the feelings 
with which 
the New 
England 
Federalists 
regarded the 
advent to 
office of Jef- 
ferson and 
his party. 
It is also 
an example 
of a political 
speech, 
which must 



be accepted 
as evidence 
not of facts, 
but of the 
temper and 
opinions of 
the times. — 
For Jeffer- 
son, see 
above, No. 
73. — For his 
policy, see 
American 
Orations, I, 
147-163; 
CoitcDipora- 
rtes, III, 
ch. 

The Federal- 
ists looked 
on the elec- 
tion of 
Jefferson as 
another 
revolution, 
and all but 
elected Burr 
over him. 



Jefferson was 

disinclined to 
make politi- 
cal removals, 
but, under 
party press- 
ure, dis- 
placed about 
half his 
officials. 



The Federal- 
ists used the 
term " Jaco- 
bin " con- 



198 Jefferson's Policy [isoi 

as that most people would consider a violent departure from 
the Federal principles, as a breach of faith. In this situa- 
tion, it was easy to foresee, that if Mr. Jefferson fulfilled the 
seeming promises in his speech, he would be deserted by the 
furious of his own party ; if he failed to fulfil them, the more 
moderate of both parties would charge him with hypocrisy : 
A dilemma, not the most enviable for a man, burthened with 
duties of a new and difficult nature ; duties, from which 
many minds of more skill and firmness than his, would have 
shrunk with dismay. The Federalists are, therefore, quietly 
waiting for the disclosure of the principles, which are to 
govern the new administration. This disclosure, must, in 
the nature of things, be near at hand. Those, who have 
heretofore, with all their skill, and labours, opposed, and 
embarrassed, the operations of the government, will now 
have its duties to perform, its measures to originate, and its 
influence and dignity to uphold. Although we are now in 
the midst of that period, which, after such turbulence, and 
convulsion, is usually settled, and serene ; yet we have re- 
ceived some samples of what we may hereafter expect from 
the hands of our rulers, when thoroughly fixed in their 
stations. On this subject, I forbear to comment. It is not 
expedient, at present, to examine, how far the powers of the 
President to remove from Office, and to supply the vacan- 
cies made by himself, " during the recess of the Senate," 
(^xtend ; and it will be difficult to deprive him of the power 
of construing his own declarations in his own manner. It 
is with the result of the administration ; that we are more 
immediately concerned. For that, we must patiently wait. 
I trust, however, that, if driven into an opposition, the Fed- 
eralists will not degrade themselves, nor their cause, by a 
sullen, indecorous, unprincipled, and indiscriminate oppo- 
sition ; but will shew, that they are actuated by higher 
motives than those, by which a Jacobinical opposition has 
heretofore been influenced. They will doubtless remember, 



No. 77] 



Criticism 199 



that thev have a cause to support, a government at stake; tinuaiiy, in 

r- , -1 ,-1 • • i, i.- order to con- 

and will conduct [themselves] like men, in so interesting nect their ad- 

and responsible a situation. whiXuitra- 

In the mean time, let us profit by the lessons which the doctrines of 

Jacobins have taught us. We have learned from experience, Revolution. 
what great things may be accomplished by a spirit of union, 

vigilance, and activity. We have seen a vicious combina- i.e. the jef- 

° ' ,, ,-1 ^-1 ■ fersoni an Ra- 

tion, composed of the most discordant materials, agreeing publicans. 

to bury their individual, and separate interests, and passions, 
and uniting, with one heart, and hand, to forward by every 
mean, and at all hazards, the general plans of the party. 
We have also seen them succeeed. That government. So in the 
which the collected wisdom, virtue and patriotism of the angina. 
United States originally planned, and, which we flattered 
ourselves, was established in its operation, under the auspices, 
the skill the pre-eminent virtues, and singular talents, of 
THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY is iiovv the sport of popular 
commotion — is adrift, without helm or compass, in a turbid 
and boisterous ocean. To be prepared against the hour of 
its shipwreck, or to bring it back in safety to its wonted 
haven, the Federal party must also unite, be watchful, and 
active. Confident as we are, that the present administration 
is not competent to the management of the government, 
upon Jacobinical principles, it is the indispensible duty of ^oin^^he 
the FederaHsts to be prepared for any event that may °"^' 
happen. For this purpose, they must move in a firm, com- 
pact, & formidable phalanx, which no common force can 
resist, & no ordinary danger intimidate. . . . 

Let the people of New-England, and especially the people 
of Connecticut, enslaved and deluded as they are, contrast 
this Tartarean state, with their own real, and substantial 
blessings. However flattered they may be with the arts, 
and fawnings of Jacobinism ; however secure they may feel, 
in the hour of revolution, from the tender care, and affection 
of those who profess so much anxiety for their good ; let 



200 



Jeff. 



erson s 



Poli 



ic 



y 



[1803 



Isaiah xxviii, 
18-20. 



them remember, that the people of many countries have 
made the same experiment which is now offered to them, 
and trusting to the same security, have been irretrievably 
enslaved, and ruined. When the reigns [reins] of power 
are in their hands, then these friends of the people, convince 
those whom they have seduced, that all dependence on their 
engagements, and promises, is vain. Then " your covenant 
with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with 
hell shall not stand : when the overflowing scourge shall pass 
through then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the 
time that it goeth forth, it shall take you : for morning by 
morning it shall pass over, by day and by night : and it shall 
be a vexation only to understand the report. For the bed 
is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it ; and the 
covering is narrower than that he can wrap himself in it." 

On the contrary, how glorious will it be for Connecticut to 
stand firmly amidst the convulsions, and downfal of the 
nations of the world. Trusting in God, and adhering more 
closely than ever to her government, her morals, and her 
religion, — 

"High o'er the wrecks of man she'll stand sublime, 
A COLUMN in the melancholy waste, 
(Its cities humbled, and its glories past) 
Majestic 'mid the solitude of time." 

Theodore Dwight, An Oration, delivered at New-Haven 07i the 
jth of July, A.D. 1 801, before the Society of the Cincinnati, 
for . . . Connecticut (Suffield, 1801), y-2() passim. 



By Presi- 
dent 
Thomas 
Jefferson. 
It is one of 
the curious 
anomalies in 
our history, 



78. Acquisition of Louisiana (1803) 

THE acquisition of New Orleans would of itself 
have been a great thing, as it would have en- 
sured to our western brethren the means of exporting their 



No. 78] 



Louisiana 



201 



produce : but that of Louisiana is inappreciable, because, 
giving us the sole dominion of the Mississippi, it excludes 
those bickerings with foreign powers, which we know of a 
certainty would have put us at war with France immediately : 
and it secures to us the course of a peaceable nation. 

The unquestioned bounds of Louisiana are the Iberville & 
Mississippi on the east, the Mexicana, or the Highlands east 
of it, on the west ; then from the head of the Mexicana gain- 
ing the highlands which include the waters of the Mississippi, 
and following those highlands round the head springs of the 
western waters of the Mississippi to its source where we 
join the English or perhaps to the Lake of the Woods. 
This may be considered as a triangle, one leg of which is 
the length of the Missouri, the other of the Mississippi, and 
the hypothenuse running from the source of the Missouri to 
the mouth of the Mississippi. I should be averse to ex- 
changing any part of this for the Floridas, because it would 
let Spain into the Mississippi on the principle of natural 
right, [which] we have always urged & are now urging to 
her, [namely] that a nation inhabiting the upper part of a 
stream has a right of innocent passage down that stream to 
the ocean : and because the Floridas will fall to us peace- 
ably the first war Spain is engaged in. We have some pre- 
tensions to extend the western territory of Louisiana to the 
Rio Norte, or Bravo ; and still stronger [pretensions to ex- 
tend] the eastern boundary to the Rio Perdido between the 
rivers Mobile & Pensacola. These last are so strong that 
France had not relinquished them & our negotiator expressly 
declared we should claim them [ : ], by properly availing 
ourselves of these with offers of a price, and our peace, we 
shall get the Floridas in good time. But in the meantime 
we shall enter on the exercise of the right of passing down 
all the rivers which rising in our territory, run thro' the 
Floridas. Spain will not oppose it by force. But there is a 
difficulty in this acquisition which presents a handle to the 



that our first 
acquisition 
of territory 
should have 
been secured 
by our first 
strict con- 
structionist 
President. 
The greatest 
event in Jef- 
ferson's ad- 
ministration 
was the an- 
nexation of 
Louisiana, 
which was 
unexpect- 
edly trans- 
ferred by Na- 
poleon, and 
eagerly ac- 
cepted by 
Jefferson 
notwith- 
standing his 
scruples 
against 
national acts 
not distinctly 
authorized in 
the text of 
the Constitu- 
tion, — On 
Jefferson, see 
above, No. 
73. — On 
Louisiana, 
see American 
Orations, I, 
205-218 ; 
Contempora- 
ries, III, ch. 



I.e. we will 
offer to Spain 
money and 
friendship, 
if that 
power will 
admit our 
pretensions 
to West 
Florida. 



202 



Jeffe 



rson s 



Poli 



ic 



y 



[1804 



In 1791, 
Jefferson op- 
posed the 
United 
States Bank, 
on the 
ground that 
Congress 
had no ex- 
press power 
to charter it. 



Made a state 
in 1812. 

This policy 
was carried 
out about 
1830. 

We had 
good title to 
lexas, 
though 
Jefferson did 
not know it, 
and weak 
title to West 
Florida. 



malcontents among us, though they have not yet discovered 
it. Our confederation is certainly confined to the limits es- 
tablished by the revolution. The general government has 
no powers but such as the constitution has given it ; and it 
has not given it a power of holding foreign territory, & still 
less of incorporating it into the Union. An amendment of 
the Constitution seems necessary for this. In the mean- 
time we must ratify & pay our money, as we have treated, 
for a thing beyond the constitution, and rely on the nation 
to sanction an act done for its great good, without its pre- 
vious authority. With respect to the disposal of the country, 
we must take the island of New Orleans and west side of the 
river as high up as Point Coupee, containing nearly the 
whole inhabitants, say about 50,000, and erect it into a 
state, or annex it to the Mississippi territory : and shut up 
all the rest from settlement for a long time to come, endeav- 
oring to exchange some of the country there unoccupied 
by Indians for the lands held by the Indians on this side 
the Mississippi, who will be glad to cede us their country 
here for an equivalent there : and we may sell out our lands 
here & pay the whole debt contracted before it comes 
due. The impost which will be paid by the inhabitants 
ceded will pay half the interest of the price we give : so that 
we really add only half the price to our debt. . . . 

Thomas Jefferson, Writings (edited by Paul Leicester Ford, New 
York, etc., 1897), VIII, 261-263. 



Written in 
1831 by 
Midship- 
man Basil 
Ham. (1788- 
1844). Hall 
entered the 
Bruish 
service in 



79. "Blockading a Neutral Port" (1804' 



I 



N the summer of 1804, His Majesty's ships Leander 
and Cambrian were ordered to proceed off New York, 
to watch the motions of two French frigates lying in that 
harbour. . . . 



No. 79] Maritime Aggressions 203 



The blockading service at any time is a tedious one ; but 
upon this occasion we contrived to enliven it in a manner, 
which, whether legitimate or not, was certainly highly ex- 
citing, and sometimes rather profitable to us. 

New York, every one knows, is the great sea-port of 
America, into which, and out of which, many dozens of ships 
sail daily. With the outward-bound vessels we had little or 
nothing to do ; but with those which came from foreign parts, 
especially from France, then our bitter enemy, we took the hb- 
erty — the Americans said the improper liberty — to interfere. 
I speak not of French ships, or those which avowed them- 
selves to be such, and hoisted enemy's colours ; for of these 
we, of course, made prize, without scruple, whenever we 
could catch them beyond the Umits of the American neu- 
trality. But this very rarely happened ; and the ships we 
meddled with, so much to the displeasure of the Americans, 
were those which, to outward appearance, belonged to citi- 
zens of the United States, but on board which, we had reason, 
good or bad, to suspect there was cargo owned by the 
enemy. Nothing seems to be so easy as to forge a ship's 
papers, or to swear false oaths ; and accordingly, a great 
deal of French property was imported into America, in vessels 
certainly belonging to the United States, but covered, as it 
was called, by documents implying an American or neutral 
right in it. . . . During the period of Buonaparte's conti- 
nental system, especially, about the year 1810, many persons 
in England engaged largely in what was called the licensed 
trade, the very essence of which was false swearing, false 
papers, and the most unprincipled collusion of every kind. 
A horrible way of making money, of which the base contam- 
ination, in the opinion of some of our best merchants, is not 
yet quite washed away. So that poor Bony, directly and 
indirectly, has enough to answer for ! . . . 

Every morning, at daybreak, during our stay off New York, 
we set about arresting the progress of all the vessels we saw, 



1802 as a 
midshipman 
on board the 
" Leander " ; 
in 1806 he 
was trans- 
ferred to the 
" Leopard." 
His work, 
largely auto- 
biographical, 
contains 
much inter- 
esting matter 
on the inter- 
nal state of 
the navy in 
the early part 
of the cen- 
tury. The 
English 
practice of 
lying off a 
neutral port 
gave just 
offence to the 
United 
States, and 
was one of 
the causes of 
the war of 
1812. — For 
maritime 
grievances, 
see above, 
No. 74. — For 
the principles 
of neutral 
trade, see 
Contempora- 
ries, III, ch. 

The use of 
false papers 
by many 
American 
vessels was a 
standing 
English 
grievance. 



2 04 Jefferson's Policy [1804 

firing off guns to tiie right and left, to make every ship that 
was running in, heave to, or wait, until we had leisure to 
send a boat on board, " to see," in our lingo, " what she was 
made of." I have frequently known a dozen, and some- 
times a couple of dozen ships, lying a league or two off the 
port, losing their fair wind, their tide, and worse than all, 
their market, for many hours, sometimes the whole day, 
before our search was completed. I am not now inquiring 
whether all this was right, or whether it was even necessary, 
but simply describing the fact. 

When any circumstance in the ship's papers looked sus- 
picious, the boarding officer brought the master and his 
documents to the Leander, where they were further ex- 
amined by the captain ; and if any thing more important was 
then elicited, by an examination of the parties or their 
papers, to justify the idea that the cargo was French, and 
not American, as was pretended, the ship was forthwith de- 
tained. She was then manned with an English crew from 
the ships of war, and ordered off to Halifax, to be there tried 
in the Admiralty Court, or adjudicated, as the term is ; and 
Demurrage either released with or without demurrage, if proved to be 
for'detTnhon. ^^^^V neutral property, or condemned, if it were shewn to 
belong to the enemy. 

One can easily conceive that this sort of proceeding, in 
every possible case, must be vexatious to the neutral. If, 
in point of fact, the whole, or a portion of the ship's cargo, 
really belong to that ship's belligerent party, whose enemy 
is investigating the case, and this be clearly made out, it is 
still mortifying to the neutral to see the property taken away 
which he has undertaken to cover so effectually as to guard 
it from capture. If, on the other hand, the cargo be all the 
while, bona fide, the property of the neutral under whose 
flag it is sailing, the vexation caused by this interruption to 
the voyage is excessive. In the event of restoration or ac- 
quittal, the owner's loss, it is said, is seldom, if ever, ad- 



No. 79] Maritime Aggressions 205 

equately compensated for by the awarded damages. In 
most cases there are found a number of suspicious circum- 
stances, sufficient to justify the detention, but not enough 
to lead to a condemnation ; and in these instances the re- 
muneration is not great. 

If the case, then, be annoying in any view of it, supposing 
the neutral ship to have been met with on the wide ocean, 
what must be the aggravation when the vessel is laid hold of 
at the instant she has all but reached her own home? when 
half an hour's further sailing would have ended the voyage 
successfully, and put it beyond the power of either of the 
belligerents to have asked any questions about the nature of 
her objects, or the ownership of her cargo? 

We detained, at that period, a good many American 
vessels, on the ground of having French or Spanish property 
on board. One of these, a very large ship from Lima, filled 
with cocoa, was clearly made out to be a good prize, and 
was condemned accordingly. Three or four others, I re- 
member, were restored to their owners by the decision of 
the Admiralty Court ; and two of them were forcibly recap- 
tured by the Americans, on their way to Halifax. On board 
one of these ships, the master, and the few hands left in her 
to give evidence at the trial, rose in the night, overpowered 
the prize-master and his crew, nailed down the hatches, 
and having put the helm up, with the wind on land, gained 
the coast before the scale of authority could be turned. In 
the other ship, the English officer in charge imprudently 
allowed himself to be drifted so near the land, that the 
people on the beach, suspecting what had happened, sent 
off armed boats in sufficient number to repossess themselves 
of the property. Possession in such cases being not nine, 
but ten points of the law, we were left to whistle for our 
prizes ! 

Captain Basil Hall, Fragments of Voyages and Travels (Edin- 
burgh, etc., 1831), I, 284-292 passim. 



2o6 



JefF, 



erson s 



Pol 



ic 



y 



[1804- I 805 



By Patrick 
Gass, one of 
the persons 
employed in 
the expedi- 
tion sent out 
by President 
Jefferson in 
1804, under 
Captain 
Meriwether 
Lewis and 
Captain 
William 
Clark, to 
explore the 
new Louisi- 
ana Pur- 
chase. Sev- 
eral persons 
of the explor- 
ing corps 
were en- 
joined to 
keep jour- 
nals, which 
were from 
time to time 
corrected 
and com- 
pared ; the 
journal after- 
ward pub- 
lished by 
Gass was one 
of these. The 
extract is a 
good exam- 
ple of an 
explorer's 
records, and 
throws light 
on the 
Indians of 
the North- 
west. — On 
Oregon, see 
Contempora- 
ries, III, ch. 



80. Lewis and Clark's Oregon Expedition 

(1804-1805) 

THE corps consisted of forty-three men (including Cap- 
tain Lewis and Captain Clarke, who were to command 
the expedition) part of the regular troops of the United 
States, and part engaged for this particular enterprize. The 
expedition was embarked on board a batteau and two peri- 
ogues. The day was showery and in the evening we en- 
camped on the north bank six miles up the river. Here we 
had leisure to reflect on our situation, and the nature of our 
engagements : and, as we had all entered this service as 
volunteers, to consider how far we stood pledged for the 
success of an expedition, which the government had pro- 
jected ; and which had been undertaken for the benefit and 
at the expence of the Union : of course of much interest 
and high expectation. 

The best authenticated accounts informed us, that we 
were to pass through a country possessed by numerous, 
powerful and warlike nations of savages, of gigantic stature, 
fierce, treacherous and cruel ; and particularly hostile to 
white men. And fame had united with tradition in opposing 
mountains to our course, which human enterprize and exer- 
tion would attempt in vain to pass. . . . 

Friday \st June, 1804. Before daylight we embarked 
and proceeded on our voyage ; passed Big Muddy creek on 
the north side ; and on the opposite side saw high banks. 
Two and an half miles higher up, we passed Bear creek ; and 
at 4 o'clock P. M. arrived at the Osage river ; where we 
remained during the evening and the next day. The Osage 
river is 197 yards wide at its confluence with the Missouri, 
which, at this place, is 875 yards broad. The country on 
the south side is broken, but rich : and the land on the 
other of a most excellent quality. The two men who went 



No. 8o] Oregon Expedition 207 



by land with the horses came to us here : they represented 
the land they had passed through as the best they had ever 
seen, and the timber good, consisting chiefly of oak, ash, 
hickory and black walnut. They had killed in their way five 
deer. The periogue left at the mouth of Gaskenade river 
came up with the man, who had been lost. . . . 

Monday 2^th. . . . This evening we finished our forti- 
fication. Flour, dried apples, pepper and other articles 
were distributed in the different messes to enable them to 
celebrate Christmas in a proper and social manner. 

Tuesday 25//?. The morning was ushered in by two dis- 
charges of a swivel, and a round of small arms by the whole 
corps. Captain Clarke then presented to each man a glass 
of brandy, and we hoisted the American flag in the garrison, 
and its first waving in fort Mandan was celebrated with 
another glass. — The men then cleared out one of the rooms 
and commenced dancing. At 10 o'clock we had another 
glass of brandy, and at i a gun was fired as a signal for din- 
ner. At half past 2 another gun was fired, as a notice to 
assemble at the dance, which was continued in a jovial 
manner till 8 at night ; and without the presence of any 
females, except three squaws, wives to our interpreter, who 
took no other part than the amusement of looking on. None 
of the natives came to the garrison this day ; the command- 
ing officers having requested they should not, which was 
strictly attended to. . . . 

Thursday 12th. We started early on our journey and had 
a fine morning. Having travelled 2 miles we reached the 
mountains which are very steep ; but the road over them 
pretty good, as it is much travelled by the natives, who come 
across to the Flathead river to gather cherries and berries. 
Our hunters in a short time killed 4 deer. At noon we 
halted at a branch of the creek, on the banks of which are a 
number of strawberry vines, haws, and service berry bushes. 
At 2 we proceeded on over a large mountain, where there is 



Gasconade 
River, in 
Missouri. 

December, 



The winter 
quarters of 
tlie expedi- 
tion ; it was 
on the north 
side of the 
Missouri, in 
what is now 
McLean 
county, 
North 
Dakota. 



September, 

1805. 



Service- 
berry = 
June-berry 



2o8 



The conti- 
nental divide. 



This was the 
first public 
expedition in 
Oregon, and 
it made the 
most impor- 
tant link in 
the chain of 
claims of the 
UnitedStates 
to the North- 
west coast. 

" Bore- 
tree " = 
bourtree, or 
elder. 



November, 
1805. 



Jeffer 



son s 



Pol 



ic 



y 



[1804-1805 



no water, and we could find no place to encamp until late at 
night, when we arrived at a small branch, and encamped by 
it, in a very inconvenient place, having come 23 miles. 

Friday XT^th. A cloudy morning. Capt. Lewis's horse 
could not be found ; but some of the men were left to hunt 
for him and we proceeded on. . . . We passed over a 
dividing ridge to the waters of another creek, and after 
travelling 12 miles we encamped on the creek, up which 
there are some prairies or plains. 

Saturday \^th. We set out early in a cloudy morning; 
passed over a large mountain, crossed Stony creek, about 30 
yards wide, and then went over another large mountain, on 
which I saw service-berry bushes hanging full of fruit ; but 
not yet ripe, owing to the coldness of the climate on these 
mountains : I also saw a number of other shrubs, which bear 
fruit, but for which I know no names. There are black 
elder and bore-tree, pitch and spruce pine all growing 
together on these mountains. Being here unable to find a 
place to halt at, where our horses could feed, we went on to 
the junction of Stony creek, with another large creek, which 
a short distance down becomes a considerable river, and 
encamped for the night, as it rained and was disagreeable 
travelling. The two hunters, that had gone back here 
joined us with Capt. Lewis's horse, but none of the hunters 
killed any thing except 2 or 3 pheasants ; on which, without 
a miracle it was impossible to feed 30 hungry men and up- 
wards, besides some Indians. So Capt. Lewis gave out some 
portable soup, which he had along, to be used in cases of 
necessity. Some of the men did not relish this soup, and 
agreed to kill a colt ; which they immediately did, and set 
about roasting it ; and which appeared to me to be good 
eating. This day we travelled 1 7 miles. . . . 

Friday ic^th. This morning the weather appeared to 
settle and clear off, but the river remained still rough. So 
we were obliged to continue here until about i o'clock, 



No. 8i] Oregon Expedition 209 



when the weather became more cahn, and we loaded and 
set out from our disagreeable camp ; went about 3 miles, 
when we came to the mouth of the river, where it empties 
into a handsome bay. Here we halted on a sand beach, 
formed a comfortable camp, and remained in full view of the 
ocean, at this time more raging than pacific. One of the 
two men who first went out came to us here, the other had 
joined Capt. Lewis's party. Last night the Indians had stolen 
their arms and accoutrements, but restored them on the 
arrival of Captain Lewis and his men in the morning. 

Saturday 16th. This was a clear morning and the wind 
pretty high. We could see the waves, like small mountains, 
rolling out in the ocean, and pretty bad in the bay. 

WE are now at the end of our voyage, which has been 
completely accomplished according to the intention of the 
expedition, the object of which was to discover a passage by 
the way of the Missouri and Columbia rivers to the Pacific 
ocean ; notwithstanding the difficulties, privations and dan- 
gers, which we had to encounter, endure and surmount. 



At the mouth 
of theColum- 
bia, discov- 
ered in 1792 
by the Ameri- 
can ship 
" Columbia." 
Here in 1810 
John Jacob 
Astor 
founded 
Astoria. 
About 1830 
settlers began 
to come in. 



Patrick Gass, A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps 
of Discovery, under the coi/nnand of Capt. Lewis and Capt. 
Clarke . . . (Pittsburgh, 1807), \2-i6^ passitn. 



81. Effect of the Embargo (1808) 



I 



T is certain some provision must be made touch- 
ing the embargo previous to our adjournment. 
A whole people is laboring under a most grievous oppres- 
sion. All the business of the nation is deranged. All its 
active hopes are frustrated. All its industry stagnant. Its 
numerous products hastening to their market, are stopped in 
their course. A dam is thrown across the current, and every 



By JOSIAH 
QUINCY 

(1722-1864), 

member of 
Congress 
from Massa- 
chusetts, and 
one of the 
party of ex- 
treme Feder- 
alists known 
as the " Essex 
Junto " ; he 
was a great 



2 lO 



Jeff, 



erson s 



Poli 



icy 



[1808 



opponent of 
Jefferson's 
administra- 
tion. In a 
speech Janu- 
ary 4, 18 1 1, 
he was one of 
the first to an- 
nounce on 
the floor of 
Congress the 
doctrine of 
secession ; 
and he 
strenuously 
opposed the 
war. The 
Embargo Act 
of 1807 was a 
prohibition 
on tlie de- 
parture of 
any vessels 
with cargoes 
for foreign 
ports, and 
was meant to 
bring Eng- 
land and 
France to 
terms. 
Quincy's 
speech, in 
spite of the 
fact that he 
was a parti- 
san, repre- 
sents the 
actual condi- 
tion of 
things. — On 
Quincy, see 
Contempora- 
ries, III, No. 
. — On the 
Embargo, 
see Contem- 
poraries, III, 
ch. 

The Em- 
bargo was 
repealed in 
1809, on ac- 
count of the 
clamor of 



hour the strength and the tendency towards resistance is 
accumulating. The scene we are now witnessing is alto- 
gether unparalleled in history. The tales of fiction have no 
parallel for it. A new writ is executed upon a whole people. 
Not, indeed, the old monarchial writ, ne exeat regno, but a 
new republican writ, ne exeat republicd. Freemen, in the 
pride of their liberty, have restraints imposed on them which 
despotism never exercised. They are f^istened down to the 
soil by the enchantment of la,vv ; and their property vanishes 
in the very process of preservation. It is impossible for us 
to separate and leave such a people at such a moment as 
this, without administering some opiate to their distress. 
Some hope, however distant, of alleviation must be prof- 
fered ; some prospect of relief opened. Otherwise, justly 
might we fear for the result of such an unexampled pressure. 
Who can say what counsels despair might suggest, or what 
weapons it might furnish? . . . 

. . . The embargo power, which now holds in its palsy- 
ing gripe all the hopes of this nation, is distinguished by 
two characteristics of material import, in deciding what con- 
trol shall be left over it during our recess. I allude to its 
greatness and its novelty. 

As to its greatness, nothing is like it. Every class of men 
feels it. Every interest in the nation is affected by it. The 
merchant, the farmer, the planter, the mechanic, the labor- 
ing poor, — all are sinking under its weight. But there is 
this that is peculiar to it, that there is no equality in its 
nature. It is not like taxation, which raises revenue accord- 
ing to the average of wealth ; burdening the rich and letting 
the poor go free. But it presses upon the particular classes 
of society, in an inverse ratio to the capacity of each to bear 
it. From those who have much, it takes indeed something. 
But from those who have little, it takes all. For what hope 
is left to the industrious poor when enterprise, activity, and 
capital are proscribed their legitimate exercise? . . . The 



No. 8i] 



The Embargo 



211 



regulations of society forbid what was once property to be 
so any longer. For property depends on circulation, on 
exchange ; on ideal value. The power of property is all 
relative. It depends not merely upon opinion here, but upon 
opinion in other countries. If it be cut off from its destined 
market, much of it is worth nothing, and all of it is worth 
infinitely less than when circulation is unobstructed. 

This embargo power is, therefore, of all powers the most 
enormous, in the manner in which it affects the hopes and 
interests of a nation. But its magnitude is not more remark- 
able than its novelty. An experiment, such as is now mak- 
ing, was never before — I will not say tried — it never before 
entered into the human imagination. There is nothing like 
it in the narrations of history or in the tales of fiction. All 
the habits of a mighty nation are at once counteracted. All 
their property depreciated. All their external connections 
violated. Five millions of people are encaged. They can- 
not go beyond the limits of that once free country ; now 
they are not even permitted to thrust their own property 
through the grates. I am not now questioning its policy, its 
wisdom, or its practicability : I am merely stating the fact. 
And I ask if such a power as this, thus great, thus novel, 
thus interfering with all the great passions and interests of 
a whole people, ought to be left for six months in operation, 
without any power of control, except upon the occurrence 
of certain specified and arbitrary contingencies ? Who can 
foretell when the spirit of endurance will cease? Who, 
when the strength of nature shall outgrow the strength of 
your bonds? Or if they do, who can give a pledge that the 
patience of the people will not first be exhausted. . . . 



Southern 
planters, 
whose ex- 
ports were 
cut off, and of 
the threats of 
New Eng- 
land ship- 
owners. 



It is still 
doubtful 
whether the 
Embargo 
was a consti- 
tutional 
statute. 



The Em- 
bargo caused 
great loss to 
America, and 
had littie 
effect on 
England and 
France. 



Josiah Quincy, Speeches delivered in the Congress of the United 
States (edited by Edmund Quincy, Boston, 1874), 37-45 
passim. 



By Francis 
James Jack- 
son (1770- 
1814), a dip- 
lomat of wide 
and extended 
experience. 
He was sent, 
in 1809, by 
the British 
government 
as minister 
plenipotenti- 
ary to Wash- 
ington. He 
began by as- 
suming that 
his predeces- 
sor, Erskine, 
had been 
tricked, and 
soon came to 
a flat as- 
sertion 
that the Sec- 
retary of 
State was de- 
nying the 
truth, and 
that the 
President 
was involved. 
His relations 
were closed 
by a note 
from the 
American 
government, 
to the effect 
that, owing to 
his insulting 
language, it 
could have 
nothing fur- 
ther to do 
with him. 
After that he 
made a tour 
of the Eastern 



CHAPTER XIII — THE WAR OF 1812 
82. Impressions of America (18 10) 



T 



New York, May ist, iSio. 

'O serve an immediate electioneering purpose 
a story was circulated, on the arrival of the 
packet, of Lord Wellesley having declared to Mr. Pinckney 
his disapprobation of my conduct. . . . 

In fact if Lord W. had even made such a declaration, he 
would have hurt his own and his country's interests much 
more than mine ; for the minds of men in this country are 
now so completely made up for me and agaifist the Gov- 
ernment that, in the end, I shall have little reason to care 
what his Lordship says or thinks on the subject ; though I 
look forward with full confidence to the next arrivals for a 
full approbation of what I have done. Ministers cannot 
disapprove of, though they may be sorry for it ; and if they 
are sorry it must be for the trouble it occasions them, for as 
I have told them, there is no loss of any adjustment of 
differences — that being impracticable with this country upon 
the principles of my instructions. I hope they [the Eng- 
lish ministry] are adopting the line that I recommended to 
them — that of procrastinating any negotiation whatever — 
but they might as well have told me so for my own guidance 
and information, instead of leaving me a prey to all the lies 
and misrepresentations which the Democrats have found it 
necessary to propagate on the subject for election purposes. 
It would be an absolute disgrace to the country, and would 
produce an impression never to be got over here — the ill 
effects of which in all future transactions we should not fail 



No. 82] Previous Diplomacy 213 



to be made sensible of — if another minister were to be sent 
out without some sort of satisfaction being taken or received 
for the treatment I have experienced. They ought to in- 
sist on my being reinstated; though God knows 10,000/. a 
year and all the ribands, blue, green, or red that ever were 
manufactured should not induce me to continue here. 
However, if ministers have acted at all upon my pi'edications, 
as the Yankees say, they are now at liberty, from the course 
things have progressively taken, to do exactly what they 
please, even to turning out the democratic party altogether, 
if it were otherwise desirable. But this may be doubted ; 
for a more despicable set I never before met with, and they 
can do neither England nor any other country any harm. 
They are as deficient in talent as in principle, which sur- 
prised me on comparing them with our European Democrats, 
amongst whom talent is not wanting ; and the mob is by 
many degrees more blackguard and ferocious than the mob 
in other countries. 

To show what they are capable of and the little safety or 
satisfaction there is in living amongst them, I send you a 
cutting from a New York paper, giving an account of a dis- 
graceful outrage that took place in that dirty nest of philos- 
ophy, Philadelphia, on the occasion of an entertainment 
given by the Russian Charge d'Affaires, on the anniversary 
of the Emperor's coronation. . . . 

Of the political system pursued by the present Govern- 
ment, I, of course, can have nothing good to say, but for 
the rest, enough has been done by the most respectable 
part of the American people to prove to me that they in no 
way participate in the sentiments of the Washington party, 
or approve of the treatment I have received from them. . . . 

The Bath Archives. A Ftirther Selection from the Diaries and 
Letters of Sir George fackson, K.C.H. (edited by Lady 
Jackson, London, 1873), I, 108-121 passim. 



States. His 
private letters 
and those of 
his wife, 
written dur- 
ing this time, 
contain many 
comments on 
existing con- 
ditions. — On 
diplomacy 
with Eng- 
land, see 
Contempora- 
ries, III, ch . 
. — On the 
war of i8ia, 
see Contem- 
poraries, III, 
ch. . 

This was not 
the estimate 
of Americans 
then current 
among edu- 
cated Eng- 
lishmen. 



I.e. the 

Federalists/ 

Jackson re- 
mained in 
the country 
about a year, 
and was not 
disavowed 
by the British 
government. 



2 14 



War of 1 8 I 2 



[l8l2 



By Presi- 
dent James 
Madison 
(1751-1836), 
in succession 
member of 
Congress, 
Secretary of 
State, and 
President. 
Essentially a 
man of 
peace, he was 
not success- 
ful in his 
management 
of the war ; 
and his argu- 
ment that 
France had 
respected 
our rights 
and that Eng- 
land should 
therefore 
withdraw her 
orders in 
council, was 
untenable. 
Moreover, he 
did not have 
a united 
country be- 
hind him, for 
most of the 
New-Eng- 
landers pre- 
ferred the 
British side 
to the 

French. The 
extract is 
from a pri- 
vate letter to 
Jefferson, 
May 25, 1812. 

— For Madi- 
son, see Con- 
temporaries, 
III, ch. 

— For causes 
of the war, 
see American 
Orations, I, 



83. Causes of the War (18 12) 



F' 



'RANGE has done nothing towards adjusting 
our differences with her. It is understood 
that the BerUn and Milan Decrees are not in force against 
the United States, and no contravention of them can be 
estabhshed against her. On the contrary, positive cases 
rebut the allegation. Still, the manner of the French Gov- 
ernment betrays the design of leaving G. Britain a pretext 
for enforcing her Orders in Gouncil. And in all other re- 
spects, the grounds for our complaints remain the same. . . . 
In the mean time, the business is become more than ever 
puzzling. To go to war with England and not with France 
arms the Federahsts with new matter, and divides the Re- 
publicans, some of whom, with the Quids, make a display 
of impartiality. To go to war against both presents a thou- 
sand difficulties ; above all, that of shutting all the ports of 
the Continent of Europe against our cruisers, who can do 
little without the use of them. It is pretty certain, also, 
that it would not gain over the Federalists, who would turn 
all those difficulties against the administration. The only 
consideration of weight in favor of this triangular war, as 
it is called, is, that it might hasten through a peace with 
G. Britain or France ; a termination, for a while, at least, 
of the obstinate questions now depending with both. 

But even this advantage is not certain. For a prolonga- 
tion of such a war might be viewed by both belligerents as 
desirable, with as little reason for the opinion as has pre- 
vailed in the past conduct of both. 

[June 22.] I inclose a paper containing the Declaration 
of war ... It is understood that the Federalists in Con- 
gress are to put all the strength of their talents into a 
protest against the war, and that the party at large are to 
be brought out in all their force. . . . 

[July 25.] The conduct of the nation against whom this 



No. 83] 



Causes 



215 



resort has been proclaimed left no choice but between that 
and the greater evil of a surrender of our Sovereignty on the 
Element on which all nations have equal rights, and in the 
free use of which the United States, as a nation whose agri- 
culture and commerce are so closely alUed, have an essential 
interest. 

The appeal to force in opposition to the force so long 
continued against us had become the more urgent, as every 
endeavor short of it had not only been fruitless, but had 
been followed by fresh usurpations and oppressions. The 
intolerable outrages committed against the crews of our ves- 
sels, which, at one time, were the result of alleged searches 
for deserters from British ships of war, had grown into a 
like pretension, first, as to all British seamen, and next, as to 
all British subjects ; with the invariable practice of seizing 
on all neutral seamen of every Nation, and on all such of 
our own seamen as British officers interested in the abuse 
might please to demand. 

The Blockading orders in Council, commencing on the 
plea of retaliating injuries indirectly done to G. Britain, 
through the direct operation of French Decrees against the 
trade of the United States with her, and on a professed dis- 
position to proceed step by step with France in revoking 
them, have been since bottomed on pretensions more and 
more extended and arbitrary, till at length it is openly 
avowed as indispensable to a repeal of the Orders as they 
affect the U. States, that the French Decrees be repealed as 
they affect G. Britain directly, and all other neutrals, as well 
as the United States. To this extraordinary avowal is super- 
added abundant evidence that the real object of the Orders 
is, not to restore freedom to the American Commerce with 
G. Britain, which could, indeed, be little interrupted by the 
Decrees of France, but to destroy our lawful commerce, as 
interfering with her own unlawful commerce with her 
enemies. The only foundation of this attempt to banish 



205 ; Cotifem- 
poraries, III, 
ch. 

The "Quids" 
were extreme 
Democrats. 

The absurd 
idea of fight- 
ing both 
powers was 
much dis- 
cussed at the 
time. 



1806. 



2 l6 



War of i8 I 2 



[1812 



the American flag from the highway of Nations, or to render 
it wholly subservient to the commercial N-iews of the British 
Government, is the absurd and exploded doctrine that the 
ocean, not less than the land, is susceptible of occupancy and 
dominion ; that this dominion is in the hands of G. Britain ; 
and that her laws, not the law of Nations, which is ours as 
well as hers, are to regulate our maritime intercourse with 
the rest of the world. 

When the United States assumed and established their 
rank among the nations of the Earth, they assumed and es- 
tablished a common Sove.reignty on the high seas, as well as 
an exclusive sovereignty within their territorial limits. The 
one is as essential as the other to their character as an Inde- 
pendent Nation. However conceding they may have been 
on controvertible points, or forbearing under casual and 
limited injuries, they can never submit to ^^Tongs irreparable 
in their kind, enormous in their amount, and indefinite in their 
duration ; and which are avowed and justified on principles 
degrading the United States from the rank of a sovereign and 
independent power. In attaining this high rank, and the 
inestimable blessings attached to it, no part of the American 
people had a more meritorious share than the people of New 
Jersey. From none, therefore, may more reasonably be ex- 
pected a patriotic zeal in maintaining by the sword the un- 
questionable and unalienable rights acquired by it . . . 

James Madison, Letters and Other Writings (Philadelphia, 
1865), II, 535-53S passitn. 



Ry Captain 
Isaac Hull 
(1773-1843). 
Hull began 
his naval 
career in 1798 
as a fourth 
lieutenant on 



84. Capture of the Guerriere (1812) 



s 

inst. 



U. S. frigate. Constitution, off Boston Light, 
IR, August 30, 181 2. 

I have the honour to inform you, that on the 19th 
at 2 P.M. being in lat. 41° 42' and long. 55° 48', with 



No. 84] A Naval Capture 



217 



the Constitution under my command, a sail was discovered 
from the mast-head bearing E. by S. or E. S. E. but at such 
a distance we could not tell what she was. All sail was 
instantly made in chase, and soon found we came up with 
her. At 3 p.m. could plainly see, that she was a ship on the 
starboard tack under easy sail, close on a wind ; at half past 
3 P.M. made her out to be a frigate; continued the chase 
until we were within about three miles, when I ordered the 
light sails to be taken in, the courses hauled up, and the 
ship cleared for action. At this time the chase had backed 
his maintop-sail, waiting for us to come down. As soon as 
the Co7istitiition was ready for action, I bore down with in- 
tention to bring him to close action immediately ; but on 
our coming within gun-shot she gave us a broadside and 
fil[l]ed away, and wore, giving us a broadside on the other 
tack, but without effect ; her shot falling short. She con- 
tinued wearing and raanoeuvering for about three quarters 
of an hour, to get a raking position, but finding she could 
not, she bore up, and run under her top-sails and gib, with 
the wind on her quarter. I immediately made sail to bring 
the ship up with her, and five minutes before 6 p.m. being 
along side within half pistol-shot, we commenced a heavy 
fire from all our guns, double shotted with round and grape, 
and so well directed were they, and so warmly kept up, that 
in 15 minutes his mizen-mast went by the board and his 
main yard in the slings, and the hull, rigging, and sails very 
much torn to pieces. The fire was kept up with equal 
warmth for 15 minutes longer, when his mainmast and fore- 
mast went, taking with them every spar, excepting the bow- 
sprit. On seeing this we ceased firing, so that in thirty min- 
utes after, we got fairly along side the enemy ; she surren- 
dered, and had not a spar standing, and her hull below and 
above water so shattered, that a few more broadsides must 
have carried her down. 

After informing you, that so fine a ship as the Guerriere, 



the " Consti- 
tution," 
and at the 
outbreak of 
the war of 
1812 he had 
risen to be 
commander 
of the vessel. 
Soon after 
the famous 
action with 
the " Guerri- 
ere," he gen- 
erously re- 
signed his 
command in 
order to give 
the other 
naval officers 
a chance, for 
at this time 
there were 
more men 
than ships. 
This piece is 
part of his 
official re- 
port to the 
Secretary of 
the Navy. — 
On naval 
battles in 
the war, see 
Contempora- 
ries, III, ch. 

The gunnery 
of the Ameri- 
cans was far 
superior to 
that of the 
British in 
most of the 
naval battles. 

This was the 
first time for 
many years 
that a British 
man-of-war 
had surren- 
dered to 
about equal 
force. 



2l8 



War of I 8 I 2 



[1814 



Those miss- 
ing were sup- 
posed to 
have gone 
overboard 
with the 
masts. 



commanded by an able and experienced ofificer, had been 
totally dismasted, and otherwise cut to pieces so as to make 
her not worth towing into port, in the short space of thirty 
minutes, you can have no doubt of the gallantry and good 
conduct of the officers and ship's company I have the honour 
to command ; it only remains therefore for me to assure 
you, that they all fought with great bravery ; and it gives me 
great pleasure to say, that from the smallest boy in the ship 
to the oldest seaman, not a look of fear was seen. They all 
went into action, giving three cheers, and requested to be 
laid close along side the enemy. 

Enclosed I have the honour to send you a list of killed 
and wounded on board the Constitution [total, 14], and a 
report of the damages she has sustained ; also a list of killed 
and wounded on board the enemy [total 77, and 24 miss- 
ing], with his quarter bill, &c. . . . 

[Abel Bowen,] The Naval Momunent (Boston, 1816), 7-9. 



By Rever- 

KN'D 

George 
Robert 
Gleig 
(1796-1888), 
who served 
in the British 
army during 
the war of 
1812, and was 
present at 
HIadensburg, 
the capture 
of Washing- 
ton, Balti- 
more, and 
New Orleans. 
In 1820 he 
published a 
iiook on liis 
American ex- 
periences; 
it is based on 



85. Capture of Washington (1814) 



T 



OWARDS morning, a violent storm of rain, 
accompanied with thunder and lightning, 
came on, which disturbed the rest of all those who were ex- 
posed to it. Yet, in spite of the disagreeableness of getting 
wet, I cannot say that I felt disposed to grumble at the in- 
terruption, for it appeared that what I had before considered 
as superlatively sublime, still wanted this to render it com- 
plete. The flashes of lightning seemed to vie in brilliancy, 
with the flames which burst from the roofs of burning 
houses, while the thunder drowned the noise of crumbling 
walls, and was only interrupted by the occasional roar of 
cannon, and of large depots of gunpowder, as they one by 
one exploded. 



No. 85] Taking of Washington 219 



. . . the consternation of the inhabitants was complete, 
and ... to them this was a night of terror. So confident 
had they been of the success of their troops, that few of 
them had dreamt of quitting their houses, or abandoning 
the city ; nor was it till the fugitives from the battle began 
to rush in, filling every place as they came with dismay, that 
the President himself thought of providing for his safety. 
That gentleman, as I was credibly informed, had gone forth 
in the morning with the army, and had continued among 
his troops till the British forces began to make their 
appearance. Whether the sight of his enemies cooled his 
courage or not, I cannot say, but, according to my informer, 
no sooner was the glittering of our arms discernible, than he 
began to discover that his presence was more wanted in the 
senate than with the army ; and having ridden through the 
ranks, and exhorted every man to do his duty, he hurried 
back to his own house, that he might prepare a feast for the 
entertainment of his officers, when they should return vic- 
torious. For the truth of these details, I will not be answer- 
able ; but this much I know, that the feast was actually 
prepared, though, instead of being devoured by American 
ofticers, it went to satisfy the less delicate appetites of a 
party of English soldiers. When the detachment, sent out 
to destroy Mr. Maddison's house, entered his dining parlour, 
they found a dinner-table spread, and covers laid for forty 
guests. . . . 

. . . They sat down to it, therefore, not indeed in the 
most orderly manner, but with countenances which would 
not have disgraced a party of aldermen at a civic feast ; and 
having satisfied their appetites with fewer complaints than 
would have probably escaped their rival gourmands, and 
partaken pretty freely of the wines, they finished by setting 
fire to the house which had so liberally entertained them. 

But, as I have just observed, this was a night of dismay 
to the inhabitants of Washington. They were taken com- 



his journal, 
and is the 
best among 
the English 
accounts, 
being impar- 
tial and in 
the main ac- 
curate ; the 
style is lively 
and interest- 
ing. The 
British force 
numbered 
only 5,000 
men, and 
marched 
fifty miles 
up into a 
country 
where there 
were at least 
50,000 able- 
bodied men 
available. 
An unsuc- 
cessful at- 
tempt was 
made to stop 
the British at 
Bladensburg. 
— F^or the 
land cam- 
paigns of the 
war, see Con- 
teiiiporaries, 
III, ch. 

Madison liad 
been gone 
some hours 
before the 
British came. 



220 



War of 1812 



[1815 



This is 
apocryphal. 



The pretext 
for this de- 
struction was 
the burning 
of some pub- 
lic buildings 
by American 
troops at 
York (now 
Toronto). 



pletely by surprise ; nor could the arrival of the flood be 
more unexpected to the natives of the antediluvian world, 
than the arrival of the British army to them. The first im- 
pulse of course tempted them to fly, and the streets were in 
consequence crowded with soldiers and senators, men, women 
and children, horses, carriages, and carts loaded with house- 
hold furniture, all hastening towards a wooden bridge which 
crosses the Potomac. The confusion thus occasioned was 
terrible, and the crowd upon the bridge was such as to 
endanger its giving away. But Mr. Maddison, having es- 
caped among the first, was no sooner safe on the opposite 
bank of the river, than he gave orders that the bridge should 
be broken down; which being obeyed, the rest were obliged 
to return, and to trust to the clemency of the victors. 

In this manner was the night passed by both parties ; 
and at day-break next morning, the light brigade moved 
into the city, while the reserve fell back to a height, about 
half a mile in the rear. Little, however, now remained to 
be done, because every thing marked out for destruction, 
was already consumed. Of the senate-house, the Presi- 
dent's palace, the barracks, the dock-yard, &c. nothing 
could be seen, except heaps of smoking ruins ; and even 
the bridge, a noble structure upwards of a mile in length, 
was almost wholly demolished. There was, therefore, no 
farther occasion to scatter the troops, and they were accord- 
ingly kept together as much as possible on the Capitol hill. 

[George Robert Gleig,] A Narrative of the Catitpaigns of the 
British Army at Washington and New Orleans (London, 1 82 1 ), 
\7.%-\2fi passim. 



By Major 
Arsf.ne La- 
carriere 
Latour, 
Jackson's 
chief engi- 
neer. A 



86. Battle of New Orleans (1815) 

LITTLE before daybreak, our outpost came in 
without noise, having perceived the enemy moving 
forward in great force. 



A 



No. 86] Battle of New Orleans 221 



At last the dawn of day discovered to us the enemy 
occupying two- thirds of the space between the wood and 
the Mississippi. Immediately a Congreve rocket went off 
from the skirt of the wood, in the direction of the river. 
This was the signal for the attack. At the same instant, the 
twelve-pounder of battery No. 6, whose gunners had per- 
ceived the enemy's movement, discharged a shot. On this 
all his troops gave three cheers, formed in close column of 
about sixty men in front, in very good order, and advanced 
nearly in the direction of battery No. 7, the men shoulder- 
ing their muskets, and all carrying fascines, and some with 
ladders. A cloud of rockets preceded them, and continued 
to fall in showers during the whole attack. Batteries Nos. 
6, 7 and 8, now opened an incessant fire on the column, 
which continued to advance in pretty good order, until, in a 
few minutes, the musketry of the troops of Tennessee and 
Kentucky, joining their fire with that of the artillery, began 
to make an impression on it, which soon threw it into con- 
fusion. It was at that moment that was heard that constant 
rolling fire, whose tremendous noise resembled ratthng peals 
of thunder. For some time the British officers succeeded 
in animating the courage of their troops, and making them 
advance, obliqueing to the left, to avoid the fire of battery 
No. 7, from which every discharge opened the column, and 
mowed down whole files, which were almost instantaneously 
replaced by new troops coming up close after the first : but 
these also shared the same fate, until at last, after twenty- 
five minutes continual firing, through which a few platoons 
advanced to the edge of the ditch, the column entirely 
broke, and part of the troops dispersed, and ran to take 
shelter among the bushes on the right. The rest retired to 
the ditch where they had been when first perceived, four 
hundred yards from our lines. 

There the officers with some difficulty rallied their troops, 
and again drew them up for a second attack, the soldiers 



good author- 
ity regards 
Latour as 
"the only 
trustworthy 
contempo- 
rary historian 
of the Louisi- 
ana cam- 
paign." By 
his position 
he was well 
qualified for 
his task, and 
he treated the 
subject in an 
unbiassed 
temper. 
The battle 
took place 
January 8, 
1815. — On 
the Southern 
campaign, 
see Contem- 
poraries, III, 
ch. 

Jackson had 
showed great 
energy in or- 
ganizing his 
defence, 
and had for- 
tified the nar- 
row space 
between the 
river and a 
swamp over 
which the 
British must 
pass. — On 
Jackson, see 
No. 102, 
below. 



222 



War of I 8 I 2 



[1815 



Pakenham 
was one of 
Wellington's 
command- 
ers, and the 
troops were 
veterans, re- 
cently victo- 
rious over 
Napoleon. 



having laid down their knapsacks at the edge of the ditch, 
that they might be less incumbered. And now, for the 
second time, the column, recruited with the troops that 
formed the rear, advanced. Again it was received with the 
same rolling fire of musketry and artillery, till, having ad- 
vanced without much order very near our lines, it at last 
broke again, and retired in the utmost confusion. . . . 

The attack on our lines had hardly begun, when the 
British commander-in-chief, the honourable sir Edward 
Packenham, fell a victim to his own intrepidity, while en- 
deavouring to animate his troops with ardour for the assault. 
Soon after his fall, two other generals, Keane and Gibbs, 
were carried off the field of battle, dangerously wounded. 
A great number of officers of rank had fallen : the ground 
over which the column had marched, was strewed with the 
dead and the wounded. Such slaughter on their side, with 
no loss on ours, spread consternation through their ranks, .as 
they were now convinced of the impossibility of carrying our 
lines, and saw that even to advance was certain death. In a 
word, notwithstanding the repeated efforts of some officers to 
make the troops form a third time, they would not advance, 
and all that could be obtained from them, was to draw them 
up in the ditch, where they passed the rest of the day. . . . 

I deem it my indispensable duty to do justice to the 
intrepid bravery displayed in that attack by the British 
troops, especially by the officers. . . . The British soldiers 
showed, on this occasion, that it is not without reason they 
are said to be deficient in agility. The enormous load they 
had to carry contributed indeed not a little to the difficulty 
of their movement. Besides their knapsacks, usually weigh- 
ing nearly thirty i)ounds, and their musket, too heavy by at 
least one third, almost all of them had to carry a fascine 
from nine to ten inches in diameter, and four feet long, 
made of sugar-canes perfectly ripe, and consequently very 
heavy, or a ladder from ten to twelve feet long. 



No. 87] 



Peace 



223 



The duty of impartiality, incumbent on him who relates 
military events, obliges me to observe that the attack made 
on Jackson's lines, by the British, on the 8th of January, 
must have been determined on by their generals, without 
any consideration of the ground, the weather, or the dififi- 
culties to be surmounted, before they could storm lines, 
defended by militia indeed, but by militia whose valour they 
had already witnessed, with soldiers bending under the 
weight of their load, when a man, unincumbered and un- 
opposed, would that day have found it difficult to mount 
our breastwork at leisure and with circumspection, so ex- 
tremely slippery was the soil. . . . 

Major A. Lacarriere Latour, Historical Me7iioir of the War in 
West Florida and Louisiana in 1814-ij (translated by H. P. 
Nugent, Philadelphia, 1816), 154-161 passim. 



87. Discussion of the Peace (18 14) 



T 



Ghent, December 25, 1814. 

^HE treaty of peace we signed yesterday with 
the British ministers is, in my opinion, as 
favorable as could be expected under existing circumstances, 
so far as they were known to us. The attitude taken by 
the State of Massachusets, and the appearances in some of 
the neighboring States, had a most unfavorable effect. Of the 
probable result of the congress at Vienna we had no correct 
information. The views of all the European powers were 
precisely known from day to day to the British Ministry. 
From neither of them did we in any shape receive any inti- 
mation of their intentions, of the general prospect of Europe, 
or of the interest they took in our contest with Great Britain. 
I have some reason to believe that all of them were desirous 
that it might continue. They did not intend to assist us ; 



By Albert 

Gallatin 

(1761-1849), 

one of the 
five commis- 
sioners 
chosen to 
represent the 
United States 
in the peace 
negotiations 
at Glient. 
His biogra- 
pher, Henry 
Adams, says, 
" The Treaty 
of Ghent was 
the special 
work and 
peculiar tri- 
umph of Mr. 
Gallatin." 
Madison was 
forced to con- 
sent to the 
omission 
from the 



224 



War of i8 I 2 



[1814 



trea*y of the 
point of im- 
pressments. 
The follow- 
ing official 
letter, dis- 
cussing the 
results ob- 
tained, was 
written, on 
the day after 
the signing, 
to James 
Monroe, then 
Secretary of 
State. — On 
Gallatin, see 
American 
Orations, 

1.84,353- — 
On the peace 
of 1814, see 
Contempora- 
ries, III, ch. 

Massachu- 
setts opposed 
the war and 
joined in the 
Hartford 
Convention. 

Wellington 
gave it as his 
opinion that 
the Ameri- 
cans were 
very strong 
behind 
breastworks. 

The " Indian 
article " was 
an agreement 
to make 
peace with 
the Western 
and South- 
ern Indians. 

Moose 
Island is in 
P.issama- 
quoddy Bay. 

A separate 



they appeared indifferent about our difficulties ; but they 
rejoiced at anything which might occupy and eventually 
weaken our enemy. The manner in which the campaign 
has terminated, the evidence afforded by its events of our 
ability to resist alone the now very formidable military 
power of England, and our having been able, without any 
foreign assistance, and after she had made such an effort, 
to obtain peace on equal terms, will raise our character and 
consequence in Europe. This, joined with the naval vic- 
tories and the belief that we alone can fight the Enghsh on 
their element, will make us to be courted as much as we 
have been neglected by foreign governments. As to the 
people of Europe, public opinion was most decidedly in our 
favor. ... I have little to add to our public despatch 
on the subject of the terms of the treaty. I really think 
that there is nothing but nominal in the Indian article as 
adopted. . . . You know that there was no alternative 
between breaking off the negotiations and accepting the 
article, and that we accepted it only as provisional and sub- 
ject to your approbation or rejection. The exception of 
Moose Island from the general restoration of territory is 
the only point on which it is possible that we might have 
obtained an alteration if we had adhered to our opposition 
to it. The British government had long fluctuated on the 
question of peace : . . . We thought it too hazardous to risk 
the peace on the question of the temporary possession of that 
small island, since the question of title was fully reserved, and 
it was therefore no cession of territory. On the subject of the 
fisheries within the jurisdiction of Great Britain, we have 
certainly done all that could be done. If, according to the 
construction of the treaty of 1783, which we assumed, the 
right was not abrogated by the war, it remains entire, since 
we most explicitly refused to renounce it directly or indi- 
rectly. In that case it is only an unsettled subject of differ- 
ence between the two countries. If the right must be con- 



No. 87] Peace 225 

sidered as abrogated by the war, we cannot regain it without convention 
an equivalent. We had none to give but the recognition of .°"j Jas^^ ' 
their right to navigate the Mississippi, and we offered it on made in 1818, 
this last supposition. This right is also lost to them, and in 
a general point of view we have certainly lost nothing. But 
we have done all that was practicable in support of the right 
to those fisheries, i, by the ground we assumed respecting 
the construction of the treaty of 1783 ; 2, by the offer to 
recognize the British right to the navigation of the Missis- 
sippi ; 3, by refusing to accept from Great Britain both her 
implied renunciation to the right of that navigation and the 
convenient boundary of 49 degrees for the whole extent of 
our and her territories west of the Lake of the Woods, rather 
than to make an implied renunciation on our own part to 
the right of America to those particular fisheries. I believe 
that Great Britain is very desirous of obtaining the northern 
part of Maine, say from about 47 north latitude to the 
northern extremity of that district as claimed by us. . . . 
[On the question of] the foundation of their disputing our 
claim to the northern part of that territory . . . feeling 
that it is not very solid, I am apt to think that they will be 
disposed to offer the whole of Passamaquoddy Bay and the 
disputed fisheries as an equivalent for this portion of north- 
ern territory, which they want in order to connect New The United 
Brunswick and Quebec. This may account for their tenacity jjgred^^o i'js 
with respect to the temporary possession of Moose Island, claims until 
and for their refusing to accept the recognition of their right they were 
to the navigation of the Mississippi, provided they recog- settled by a 

o rsr ! r- j^ o compromise 

nized ours to the fisheries. That northern territory is of no 
importance to us, and belongs to the United States, and not 
to Massachusetts . . . 

Albert Gallatin, IVrttings (edited by Henry Adams, Philadelphia, 
1879), I, 6^^-6^7 passim. 

Q 



By John 
Me'lish 
(1771-1822), 
a Scotchman, 
who travelled 
extensively in 
the United 
States and 
published ac- 
counts of his 
journeys. 
His state- 
ments are 
based on 
careful ob- 
servation, and 
his attitude 
is unpreju- 
diced, though 
he was very 
favorably 
disposed 
toward the 
United States 
and its insti- 
tutions. He 
regarded this 
country as 
the most 
favorable 
place for de- 
veloping 
British ideas 
of govern- 
ment un- 
trammelled 
by traces of 
feudalism ; 
and, by 
reason of its 
resources 
and the 
character of 
its inhab- 
itants, as as- 



CHAPTER XIV — CONDITIONS OF 
NATIONAL GROWTH, 1815-1830 

88. Boston and Neighboring Towns (1806) 

BOSTON is built on a peninsula, at the head of Massa- 
chusetts Bay. ... A great part of the town lies low 
along the bay ; but the ground rises to a considerable eleva- 
tion in the middle, where the State-House is built, which 
gives it a very handsome appearance at a distance. The 
town partakes of the nature of the old towns in England, 
and is irregularly built, many of the streets being crooked 
and narrow ; but the more modern part is regular, and the 
streets broad and well paved. . . . there are five public 
squares ; but none of them are of great extent, except the 
Mall, which is a very elegant piece of public ground, in 
front of the State-House. 

The number of dwelling-houses is above 3500, and, by 
the census of 1800, the inhabitants were 24,937 ; from the 
increase that has since taken place, it is presumed that the 
number is now upwards of 30,000. The greater part of 
the houses are built of brick, and many of them are spacious 
and elegant. 

The pubhc buildings are the State-House, Court-House, 
Jail, Concert-Hall, Faneuil-Hall, Aims-House, Work-House, 
and Bridewell ; the Museum, Library, Theatre, and nine 
congregational, three episcopal, and two baptist churches, 
with one each for Roman cathohcs, methodists, and univer- 
salists. The jjublic buildings are in general very handsome, 
and the greater part of the churches are ornamented with 
spires. 

226 



No. 88] New England 227 

The markets of Boston are well supplied with every kind sured of a 

of country provisions, fruit, and fish. The prices are not fconomic^' 

materially different from those of New York. Flour is gen- and political 

erally a little higher ; but cod-fish, which is the universal colonial 

Saturday dinner, is lower. . . . Boston see 

■' _ ' _ above, Nos. 

. . . Public education is on an excellent footing. There 17.52.53- — 
are eight or nine public schools, supported at the expence ditions of"' 
of the town, which are accessible to all the members of the New Eng- 

rr^-i land in 1815, 

community, free of expence. They are managed by a com- see Contem- 
mittee of twenty-one gentlemen, chosen annually, and are Z^^'^^'". ^Il> 
under good regulations. Besides these, there are a number 
of private seminaries, at which all the various branches of 
education are taught \ and, upon the whole, I beheve Bos- 
ton may challenge a competition on this branch with any 
city in Europe, Edinburgh, in Scotland, perhaps, excepted. 

The fruits of this attention to the improvement of the 
mind, and the cultivation of the benevolent affections, are 
very apparent in the deportment of the citizens of Boston, 
who are intelligent, sober, and industrious ; and, though 
much attached to the subject of religion, they are more 
liberal, generally speaking, than any people I have yet been 
amongst. The ladies of Boston are generally handsome, 
with fine complexions ; and, judging from the sample which 
I saw, they have a richness of intellect, and a cheerfulness 
of deportment, that makes them truly interesting. Alto- 
gether, Boston is really a fine place. . . . 

... I went to a number of the public places ; among 
others, the State-House, from whence there is a most elegant 
view of the town, bay, shipping, neck, bridges, and the whole 
country round, to the distance of from twelve to fifteen miles, 
in each direction, presenting most picturesque scenery . . . 

The bridges of Boston merit particular attention, being 
works of great extent and utility, and constructed at a vast 
expence ; a proof of the sagacity and persevering industry 
of this people. . . . 



228 



National Growth [isoiisog 



. . . Lynn is a pretty little town, remarkable for its exten- 
sive manufacture of shoes. ' From thence we travelled to 
Salem, about seven miles, through a very rugged, stony 
country, but by an excellent turnpike road, made, I was in- 
formed, mostly by Irishmen. I may here take occasion to 
remark, that the Irish emigrants are exceedingly useful in 
this country, and a great portion of the most rugged labour 
in it is performed by them. The lower orders of the Irish 
are generally strong, robust men, without money, and with a 
very slender education. Hence they are generally unfit for 
any kind of mercantile employment, and those who have not 
learned some mechanical profession get employment in va- 
rious branches of labour, for which they are well adapted ; 
and, getting good wages, they soon become independent 
and happy. Hence the Irish are remarkable for their 
attachment to the American government, while many other 
foreigners, particularly those engaged in commerce, are dis- 
contented and fretful. 

John Melish, Travels in the United States of A?nerica, 1806-1811 
(Philadelphia, 1812), I, %()-<^\ passim. 



By Colonel 
Thomas 

lEFFERSON 

Randolph 
(1792-1875), 
tlie eldest 
gnindson of 
Jefferson. 
He was born 
at Monti- 
cello, and 
brouglit up 
in the JTOuse, 
and there- 
fore speaks 
from intimate 
personal 



89. The Virginia Gentleman (i 801-1809) 

HIS [Jefferson's] manners were of that polished school 
of the Colonial Government, so remarkable in its 
day — under no circumstances violating any of those minor 
conventional observances which constitute the well-bred 
gentleman, courteous and considerate to all persons. On 
riding out with him when a lad, we met a negro who bowed 
to us ; he returned his bow ; I did not. Turning to me, he 
asked, 

" Do you permit a negro to be more of a gentleman than 
yourself? " 



No. 89] 



The South 



229 



Mr. Jefferson's hair, when young, was of a reddish cast ; 
sandy as he advanced in years ; his eye, hazel. Dying in his 
84th year, he had not lost a tooth, nor had one defective ; 
his skin thin, peeling from his face on exposure to the sun, 
and giving it a lettered appearance; the superficial veins so 
weak, as upon the slightest blow to cause extensive suffu- 
sions of blood — in early life, upon standing to write for any 
length of time, bursting beneath the skin ; it, however, gave 
him no inconvenience. His countenance was mild and be- 
nignant, and attractive to strangers. 

While President, returning on horseback from Charlottes- 
ville with company whom he had invited to dinner, and who 
were, all but one or two, riding ahead of him, on reaching a 
stream over which there was no bridge, a man asked him to 
take him up behind him and carry him over. The gentle- 
men in the rear coming up just as Mr. Jefferson had put him 
down and ridden on, asked the man how it happened that he 
had permitted the others to pass without asking them ? He 
replied, 

" From their looks, I did not like to ask them ; the old 
gentleman looked as if he would do it, and I asked him." 

He was very much surprised to hear that he had ridden 
behind the President of the United States. 

Mr. Jefferson's stature was commanding — six feet two- 
and-a-half inches in height, well formed, indicating strength, 
activity, and robust health ; his carriage erect ; step firm and 
elastic, which he preserved to his death ; his temper, natu- 
rally strong, under perfect control ; his courage cool and 
impassive. No one ever knew him exhibit trepidation. His 
moral courage of the highest order — his will firm and in- 
flexible — it was remarked of him that he never abandoned a 
plan, a principle, or a friend. 

A bold and fearless rider, you saw at a glance, from his 
easy and confident seat, that he was master of his horse, 
which was usually the fine blood-horse of Virginia. The 



knowledge. 
Owing, how- 
ever, to the 
very natural 
veneration 
which he had 
for his great 
relative, his 
characteriza- 
tion may 
hardly be 
held to cover 
the whole 
ground. — 
For other 
opinions of 
Jefferson, see 
above. No. 
58 and ch. xi. 
— On the 
South, see 
Conternpora- 
ries, III, ch. 



230 National Growth [isoi-isog 

only impatience of temper he ever exhibited was with his 
horse, which he subdued to his will by a fearless application 
of the whip on the slightest manifestation of restiveness. 
He retained to the last his fondness for riding on horseback ; 
he rode within three weeks of his death, when, from disease, 
debiUty, and age, he mounted with difficulty. He rode with 
confidence, and never permitted a servant to accompany him ; 
he was fond of soHtary rides and musing, and said that the 
presence of a servant annoyed him. 

He held in little esteem the education which made men 
ignorant and helpless as to the common necessities of life ; 
and he exemplified it by an incident which occurred to a 
young gentleman returned from Europe, where he had been 
educated. On riding out with his companions, the strap of 
his girth broke at the hole for the buckle; and they, perceiv- 
ing it an accident easily remedied, rode on and left him. A 
plain man coming up, and seeing that his horse had made a 
circular path in the road in his impatience to get on, asked 
if he could aid him. 

"Oh, sir," repUed the young man, "if you could only as- 
sist me to get it up to the next hole." 

" Suppose you let it out a hole or two on the other side," 
said the man. 

His habits were regular and systematic. He was a miser 
of his time, rose always at dawn, wrote and read until break- 
fast, breakfasted early, and dined from three to four . . . 
retired at nine, and to bed from ten to eleven. He said, in 
his last illness, that the sun had not caught him in bed for 
fifty years. 

He always made his own fire. He drank water but once a 
day, a single glass, when he returned from his ride. He ate 
heartily, and much vegetable food, preferring French cook- 
ery, because it made the meats more tender. He never 
drank ardent spirits or strong wines. Such was his aversion 
to ardent spirits, that when, in his last illness, his physician 



No. 90] 



The West 



231 



desired him to use brandy as an astringent, he could not 
induce him to take it strong enough. 

Sarah N. Randolph, The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson, 
(New York, Harper «& Brothers, 1872), 337-339- 



90. Religious Life in the West (1828) 



E^ 



'XCEPT among the Catholics, there are very 
few settled pastors, in the sense in which that 
phrase is understood in New England and the Atlantic 
cities. Most of the ministers, that are in some sense per- 
manent, discharge pastoral duties not only in their individ- 
ual societies, but in a wide district about them. The range 
of duties, the emolument, the estimation, and in fact the 
whole condition of a western pastor, are widely different 
from an Atlantic minister. ... A circulating phalanx of 
Methodists, Baptists and Cumberland Presbyterians, of At- 
lantic missionaries, and of young eleves of the Catholic 
theological seminaries, from the redundant mass of unoccu- 
pied ministers, both in the Protestant and Catholic countries, 
pervades this great valley with its numerous detachments, 
from Pittsburg, the mountains, the lakes, and the Missouri, 
to the gulf of Mexico. They all pursue the interests of 
their several denominations in their own way, and generally 
in profound peace. . . . 

... If we except Arkansas and Louisiana, there is every 
where else an abundance of some kind of preaching. The 
village papers on all sides contain printed notices, and writ- 
ten ones are affixed to the public places, notifying what are 
called ' meetings.' A traveller in a clerical dress does not 
fail to be asked, at the pubHc houses, where he stops, if he 
is a preacher, and if he wishes to notify a meeting. 



By Rever- 
end Timo- 
thy Flint 
(1780-1840), 
a Massachu- 
setts clergy- 
man, who 
spent some 
years as a 
missionary in 
the Missis- 
sippi and 
Ohio valleys. 
The account 
from which 
this piece is 
taken, written 
about two 
years after 
his return, is 
an example 
of a contem- 
porary narra- 
tive, com- 
posed while 
the events de- 
scribed were 
fresh in mem- 
ory, but from 
a perspective 
sufficiently 
removed. 
As in colo- 
nial times, re- 
ligious con- 
cerns were 
one of the 
chief inter- 
ests of the 
frontiersmen. 
— For other 
accounts of 
the West, see 



232 



National Growth 



[1828 



Contempora- 
ries, III, ch. 



" Eleves," i.e. 
pupils. 



There are stationary preachers in the towns, particularly 
in Ohio. But in the rural congregations through the western 
country beyond Ohio, it is seldom that a minister is station- 
ary for more than a few months. A ministry of a year in 
one place may be considered beyond the common duration. 
Nine tenths of the religious instruction of the country is 
given by people, who itinerate, and who are, with very few 
exceptions, notwithstanding all that has been said to the 
contrary, men of great zeal and sanctity. . . . Travelling 
from month to month through dark forests, with such ample 
time and range for deep thought, as they amble slowly on 
horseback along their peregrinations, the men naturally ac- 
quire a pensive and romantic turn of thought and expression, 
as we think, favorable to eloquence. Hence the preaching 
is of a highly popular cast, and its first aim is to excite the 
feelings. — Hence, too, excitements, or in religious parlance 
* awakenings,' are common in all this region. . . . 

None, but one who has seen, can imagine the interest, 
excited in a district of country, perhaps, fifty miles in ex- 
tent, by the awaited approach of the time for a camp meet- 
ing; and none, but one who has seen, can imagine how 
profoundly the preachers have understood what produces 
effect, and how well they have practised upon it. . . . The 
notice has been circulated two or three months. On the 
appointed day, coaches, chaises, wagons, carts, people on 
horseback, and multitudes travelHng from a distance on 
foot, wagons with provisions, mattresses, tents, and arrange- 
ments for the stay of a week, are seen hurrying from every 
point towards the central spot. . . . 

The ambitious and wealthy are there, because in this 
region opinion is all-powerful ; and they are there, either to 
extend their influence, or that their absence may not be 
noted, to diminish it. Aspirants for office are there, to 
electioneer, and gain popularity. Vast numbers are tliere 
from simple curiosity, and merely to enjoy a spectacle. The 



No. go] Frontier Religion 233 

young and the beautiful are there, with mixed motives, which 
it were best not severely to scrutinize. Children are there, 
their young eyes glistening with the intense interest of eager 
curiosity. The middle aged fathers and mothers of famihes 
are there, with the sober views of people, whose plans in 
life are fixed, and waiting calmly to hear. Men and women 
of hoary hairs are there, with such thoughts, it may be 
hoped, as their years invite. — Such is the congregation con- 
sisting of thousands. . . . 

The line of tents is pitched ; and the religious city grows 
up in a few hours under the trees, beside the stream. 
Lamps are hung in lines among the branches ; and the 
effect of their glare upon the surrounding forest is, as of 
magic. , . . Meantime the multitudes, with the highest 
excitement of social feeling added to the general enthusiasm 
of expectation, pass from tent to tent, and interchange apos- 
tolic greetings and embraces, and talk of the coming so- 
lemnities. . . . An old man, in a dress of the quaintest 
simplicity, ascends a platform, wipes the dust from his 
spectacles, and in a voice of suppressed emotion, gives out 
the hymn, of which the whole assembled multitude can re- 
cite the words, — and an air, in which every voice can join. 
. . . The hoary orator talks of God, of eternity, a judgment 
to come, and all that is impressive beyond. He speaks of 
his * experiences,' his toils and travels, his persecutions and 
welcomes, and how many he has seen in hope, in peace and 
triumph, gathered to their fathers ; and when he speaks of 
the short space that remains to him, his only regret is, that 
he can no more proclaim, in the silence of death, the 
mercies of his crucified Redeemer. 

There is no need of the studied trick of oratory, to pro- 
duce in such a place the deepest movements of the 
heart. . . . 

Whatever be the cause, the effect is certain, that through 
the state of Tennessee, parts of Mississippi, Missouri, Ken- 



234 



National Growth 



[1820 



By Secre- 
tary OF 
State 
John 

QUINCY 

Adams 
(1767-1848), 
under dates 
of February 
24 and 
March 3, 
1820. 
He went 
farther than 
his col- 
leagues in 



tucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, these excitements have 
produced a palpable change in the habits and manners of 
the people. The gambling and drinking shops are deserted ; 
and the people, that used to congregate there, now go to 
the religious meetings. The Methodists, too, have done 
great and incalculable good. They are generally of a char- 
acter, education and training, that prepare them for the 
elements, upon which they are destined to operate. They 
speak the dialect, understand the interests, and enter into 
the feelings of their audience. They exert a prodigious 
and incalculable bearing upon the rough backwoods men ; 
and do good, where more polished, and trained ministers 
would preach without effect. . . . 

That part of Pennsylvania and Virginia west of the moun- 
tains has a predominance of Presbyterians. The great state 
of Ohio is made up of such mixed elements, that it would 
be difficult to say, which of all the sects prevails. As a 
general characteristic, the people are strongly inclined to at- 
tend on some kind of religions worship. . . . Methodists, 
Presbyterians and Catholics are the prevailing denomina- 
tions of the West. 

Timothy Flint, A Condensed Geogra-phy and History of the 
Western States, or the Mississippi Valley (Cincinnati, 1828), 
I, 217-224 passim. 



91. Missouri Compromise (1820) 

I HAD some conversation with Calhoun on the slave 
question pending in Congress. He said he did not 
think it would produce a dissolution of the Union, but, if 
it should, the South would be from necessity compelled to 
form an alliance, offensive and defensive, with Great Britain. 
I said that would be returning to the colonial state. 
He said, yes, pretty much, but it would be forced upon 



No. 91] 



Slavery 



235 



them. I asked him whether he thought, if by the effect of 
this alhance, offensive and defensive, the population of the 
North should be cut off from its natural outlet upon the 
ocean, it would fall back upon its rocks bound hand and 
foot, to starve, or whether it would not retain its powers of 
locomotion to move southward by land. Then, he said, 
they would find it necessary to make their communities all 
military. I pressed the conversation no further ; but if the 
dissolution of the Union should result from the slave ques- 
tion, it is as obvious as anything that can be foreseen of 
futurity, that it must shortly afterwards be followed by the 
universal emancipation of the slaves. . . . 

After this meeting, I walked home with Calhoun, who 
said that the principles which I had avowed were just and 
noble ; but that in the Southern country, whenever they 
were mentioned, they were always understood as applying 
only to white men. Domestic labor was confined to the 
blacks, and such was the prejudice, that if he, who was the 
most popular man in his district, were to keep a white ser- 
vant in his house, his character and reputation would be 
irretrievably ruined. 

I said that this confounding of the ideas of servitude and 
labor was one of the bad effects of slavery ; but he thought 
it attended with many excellent consequences. It did not 
apply to all kinds of labor — not, for example, to farming. 
He himself had often held the plough ; so had his father. 
Manufacturing and mechanical labor was not degrading. It 
was only manual labor — the proper work of slaves. No 
white person could descend to that. And it was the best 
guarantee to equality among the whites. It produced an 
unvarying level among them. It not only did not excite, 
but did not even admit of inequalities, by which one white 
man could domineer over another. 

I told Calhoun I could not see things in the same light. 
It is, in truth, all perverted sentiment — mistaking labor for 



the cabinet 
(who all 
agreed that 
Congress 
had the con- 
stitutional 
right to pro- 
hibit slavery 
in the Terri- 
tories), in 
asserting 
that that pro- 
hibition 
applied not 
only to the 
Territory as 
such, but to 
all future 
States which 
might be 
carved out 
of it. The 
following is a 
striking illus- 
tration of a 
practice 
which the 
Southern 
leaders had 
begun, of 
threatening 
secession 
whenever 
their wishes 
regarding the 
extension of 
slavery were 
opposed. 
The extract 
is from one 
of the most 
valuable of 
all the 
sources on 
American 
histo'ry, the 
journal of 
Adams. — 
On Adams, 
see American 
Orations, II, 
115.372; 
Contempora- 
ries, III, No. 
. — On the 
Compro- 



236 



National Growth 



[1820 



mise, see 
American 
Orations, II, 
33-101 ; Con- 
temporaries, 
III, ch. 

Adams's 
prophecy of 
civil war in 
the third 
paragraph 
was fulfilled 
in 1861. 

The " meet- 
ing " men- 
tioned in the 
fourth para- 
graph was a 
cabinet meet- 
ing held 
March 3, 
1820, to con- 
sider the 
Compromise 
bill. 



" Double 
representa- 
tion " by the 
Federal or 
three-fifths 
ratio. 



slavery, and dominion for freedom. The discussion of this 
Missouri question has betrayed the secret of their souls. In 
the abstract they admit that slavery is an evil, they disclaim 
all participation in the introduction of it, and cast it all upon 
the shoulders of our old Grandam Britain. But when probed 
to the quick upon it, they show at the bottom of their souls 
pride and vainglory in their condition of masterdom. They 
fancy themselves more generous and noble-hearted than the 
plain freemen who labor for subsistence. They look down 
upon the simpHcity of a Yankee's manners, because he has 
no habits of overbearing like theirs and cannot treat negroes 
like dogs. . . . The impression produced upon my mind by 
the progress of this discussion is, that the bargain between 
freedom and slavery contained in the Constitution of the 
United States is morally and politically vicious, inconsistent 
with the principles upon which alone our Revolution can be 
justified ; cruel and oppressive, by riveting the chains of 
slavery, by pledging the faith of freedom to maintain and 
perpetuate the tyranny of the master ; and grossly unequal 
and impolitic, by admitting that slaves are at once enemies 
to be kept in subjection, property to be secured or restored 
to their owners, and persons not to be represented them- 
selves, but for whom their masters are privileged with nearly 
a double share of representation. The consequence has been 
that this slave representation has governed the Union. 
Benjamin portioned above his brethren has ravined as a 
wolf. In the morning he has devoured the prey, and at 
night he has divided the spoil. It would be no difficult 
matter to prove, by reviewing the history of the Union 
under this Constitution, that almost everything which has 
contributed to the honor and welfare of the nation has been 
accomplished in despite of them or forced upon them, and 
that everything unpropitious and dishonorable, including tlie 
blunders and follies of their adversaries, may be traced to 
them. I have favored this Missouri compromise, believing 



No. 92] Missouri Compromise 237 

it to be all that could be effected under the present Consti- 
tution, and from extreme unwillingness to put the Union at 
hazard. But perhaps it would have been a wiser as well as 
a bolder course to have persisted in the restriction upon 
Missouri, till it should have terminated in a convention of 
the States to revise and amend the Constitution. This would Not till 1836 
have produced a new Union of thirteen or fourteen States awakerf^n 
unpolluted with slavery, with a great and glorious object to ^^^^ question, 
effect, namely, that of rallying to their standard the other 
States by the universal emancipation of their slaves. If the 
Union must be dissolved, slavery is precisely the question 
upon which it ought to break. For the present, however, 
this contest is laid asleep. 

John Quincy Adams, Memoirs (edited by Charles Francis 
Adams, Philadelphia, 1875), I^> 530-531 i V, 10-12 passim. 



92. A Settler in Illinois (18 17) 

I AM now going to take you to the prairies, to 
shew you the very beginning of our settle- 
ment. Having fixed on the. north-western portion of our 
prairie for our future residence and farm, the first act was 
building a cabin, about two hundred yards from the spot 
where the house is to stand. This cabin is built of round 
straight logs, about a foot in diameter, lying upon each 
other, and notched in at the corners, forming a room 
eighteen feet long by sixteen ; the intervals between the 
logs " chunked," that is, filled in with slips of wood ; and 
" mudded," that is, daubed with a plaister of mud : a 
spacious chimney, built also of logs, stands like a bastion 
at one end : the roof is well covered with four hundred 
" clap boards " of cleft oak, very much like the pales used 
in England for fencing parks. A hole is cut through the 



By Morris 

BiRKBECK 

(ti832), an 
Englishman, 
who settled 
in Illinois 
and founded 
the town of 
New Albion. 
His account 
of the coun- 
try is very 
optimistic, 
and he ap- 
pears to have 
been some- 
what preju- 
diced against 
the land of 
his birth, 
whence he 
had emi- 
grated to get 
more elbow- 
room. His 
book is made 



238 



National Growth 



[1817 



up of letters 
to friends and 
others who 
had applied 
to him for 
information 
and advice 
relative to 
emigration. 
He presents 
his informa- 
tion in a 
specific, 
sprightly, and 
interesting 
form. — On 
other English 
travellers, see 
above, Nos. 
26, 55, 82. — 
On the West, 
see above, 
Nos. 66, 90; 
Contempora- 
ries, III, ch. 



side, called, very properly, the "door, (the through,)" for 
which there is a " shutter," made also of cleft oak, and 
hung on wooden hinges. All this has been executed by 
contract, and well executed, for twenty dollars. I have 
since added ten dollars to the cost, for the luxury of a floor 
and ceiling of sawn boards, and it is now a comfortable 
habitation. 

. . . We arrived in the evening, our horses heavily laden 
with our guns, and provisions, and cooking utensils, and 
blankets, not forgetting the all-important axe. This was 
immediately put in requisition, and we soon kindled a 
famous fire, before which we spread our pallets, and, after a 
hearty supper, soon forgot that besides ourselves, our horses 
and our dogs, the wild animals of the forest were the only 
inhabitants of our wide domain. Our cabin stands at the 
edge of the prairie, just within the wood, so as to be con- 
cealed from the view until you are at the very door. Thirty 
paces to the east the prospect opens from a commanding 
eminence over the prairie, which extends four miles to the 
south and south-east, and over the woods beyond to a great 
distance ; whilst the high timber behind, and on each side, 
to the west, north, and east, forms a sheltered cove about 
five hundred yards in width. It is about the middle of this 
cove, two hundred and fifty yards from the wood each way, 
but open to the south, that we propose building our house. 

Well, having thus established myself as a resident pro- 
prietor, in the morning my boy and I (our friend having 
left us) sallied forth in quest of neighbours, having heard of 
two new settlements at no great distance. Our first visit 
was to Mr. Emberson, who had just established himself in a 
cabin similar to our own, at the edge of a small prairie two 
miles north-west of us. We found him a respectable young 
man, more farmer than hunter, surrounded by a numerous 
family, and making the most of a rainy day by mending the 
shoes of his household. We then proceeded to Mr. Wood- 



No. 92] A Frontiersman 239 

land's, about the same distance south-west : he is an inhab- 
itant of longer standing, for he arrived in April, Mr. E. in 
August. He has since built for us a second cabin, connected 
with the first by a covered roof or porch, which is very con- 
venient, forming together a commodious dweUing. . . . 

. . . Our township is a square of six miles each side, or 
thirty-six square miles ; and what may properly be called 
our neighbourhood, extends about six miles round this town- 
ship in every direction. Six miles to the north is the 
boundary of surveyed lands. . . . 

There are many other prairies, or natural meadows, of 
various dimensions and qualities, scattered over this surface, 
which consists of about two hundred square miles, contain- 
ing perhaps twelve human habitations, all erected, I believe, 
within one year of our first visit — most of them within 
three months. At or near the mouth of the Bonpas, where 
it falls into the Big Wabash, we project a shipping port : 
a ridge of high land, without any intervening creek, 
will afford an easy communication with the river at that 
place. ... 

There are no very good mill-seats on the streams in our 
neighbourhood, but our prairie affords a most eligible site 
for a windmill ; we are therefore going to erect one imme- 
diately : the materials are in great forwardness, and we 
hope to have it in order to grind the fruits of the ensuing 
harvest. 

Two brothers, and the wife of one of them, started from 
the village of Puttenham, close to our old VVanborough, and English 
have made their way out to us : they are carpenters, and towns, 
are now very usefully employed in preparing the scanthngs 
for the mill, and other purposes. You may suppose how 
cordially we received these good people. They landed at 
Philadelphia, not knowing where on this vast continent they 
should find us : fi-om thence they were directed to Pitts- 
burg, a wearisome journey over the mountains of more 



240 



National Growth 



[1818 



than 300 miles ; at Pittsburgh they bought a little boat for 
six or seven dollars, and came gently down the Ohio, 1,200 
miles, to Shawnee-town ; from thence they proceeded on 
foot till they found us. . . . 

By the first of March I hope to have two ploughs at 
work, and may possibly put in 100 acres of corn this spring. 
Early in May, I think, we shall be all settled in a convenient 
temporary dwelling, formed of a range of cabins of ten 
rooms, until we can accomplish our purpose of building a 
more substantial house. . . . 

Morris Birkbeck, Letters from Illinois (London, 1818), 30-35 
passim. 



By Surgeon 
Henry 
Braushaw 
Fearon 
(born about 
1770), a 
London sur- 
geon, sent to 
the United 
States in 1817 
by a number 
of English 
famines, for 
the purpose 
of ascertain- 
ing what part 
of the coun- 
try, if any, 
would be 
suitable for 
st'ttlement. 
He writes 
from a some- 
what un- 
friendly point 
of view and 
with a slight 
tendency 
toward hasti- 
ness and ex- 
aggeration. 



93. Amusements in New Orleans (1818) 

THE French language is still predominant in New 
Orleans. The population is said to be 30,000 ; two 
thirds of which do not speak Enghsh. The appearance of 
the people too was French, and even the negroes evinced, 
by their antics, in rather a ludicrous manner, their previous 
connection with that nation. 

The general manners and habits are very relaxed. The 
first day of my residence here was Sunday, and I was not a 
little surprised to find in the United States the markets, 
shops, theatre, circus, and public ball-rooms open. Gam- 
bling houses throng the city : all coffee-houses, together with 
the exchange, are occupied from morning until night, by 
gamesters. It is said, that when the Kentuckians arrive at 
this place, they are in their glory, finding neither limit to, 
nor punishment of their excesses. The general style of 
living is luxurious. Houses are elegantly furnished. The 
ball-room, at Davis's hotel, I have never seen exceeded in 
splendour. Private dwellings partake of the same character ; 



No. 93] 



Louisiana 



241 



and the ladies dress with expensive elegance. The sources 
of public amusement are numerous and varied ; among them 
I remark the following : 

"INTERESTING EXHIBITION. 

" On Sunday the 9th inst. will be represented in the place 
where Fire-works are generally exhibited, near the Circus, an 
extraordinary fight of Furious Animals. The place where the 
animals will fight is a rotunda of 160 feet in circumference, with 
a railing 17 feet in height, and a circular gallery well condi- 
tioned and strong, inspected by the Mayor and surveyors by him 
appointed. 

»' 1st Fight — A strong Attakapas Bull, attacked and subdued 
by six of the strongest dogs of the country. 

"2d Fight — Six Bull-dogs against a Canadian Bear. 

"3d Fight — A beautiful Tiger against a black Bear. 

" 4th Fight — Twelve dogs against a strong and furious Ope- 
loussas Bull. 

" If the Tiger is not vanquished in his fight with the Bear, he 
will be sent alone against the last Bull, and if the latter conquers 
all his enemies, several pieces of fire-works will be placed on his 
back, which will produce a very entertaining amusement. 

"In the Circus will be placed two Manakins, which, notwith- 
standing the efforts of the Bulls, to throw them down, will always 
rise again, whereby the animals will get furious. 

" The doors will be opened at three and the Exhibition begin 
at four o'clock precisely. 

" Admittance, one dollar for grown persons and 50 cents for 
children. 

"A military band will perform during the Exhibition. 

" If Mr. Renault is so happy as to amuse the spectators by that 
new spectacle, he will use every exertion to diversify and augment 
it, in order to prove to a generous public, whose patronage has 
been hitherto so kindly bestowed upon him, how anxious he is to 
please them." 

Henry Bradshaw Fearon, Sketches of America. A Narrative of 
a Journey of Five Thousand Miles through the Eastern and 
Western States of America (London, 1818), 275-277. 



In this piece 
he gives 
a vivid 
picture of 
certain as- 
pects of life 
in a South- 
western pio- 
neer town of 
the early 
days. 

There is no 
reason to 
doubt that 
the handbill 
was actually 
circulated. — 
For the 
Southwest, 
see Contem- 
poraries, III, 
ch. 



By Rever- 
end John 
Rankin 
(1793- 1 886). 
Presbyterian 
minister, and 
founder of an 
anti-slavery 
society in 
Carlisle, 
Kentucky, in 
1818; later he 
removed to 
Ripley, Ohio, 
and became 
an anti-slav- 
ery leader; 
he was 
mobbed 
as many as 
twenty times, 
was a con- 
ductor on the 
Under- 
ground Rail- 
road, and as- 
sisted Eliza 
and her 
child, the 
originals of 
Uncle Tom's 
Cabin, to 
escape. 
About 1824 
he addressed 
a series of let- 
ters to his 
brother in 
Virginia, to 
dissuade him 
from becom- 
ing a slave- 
owner. Ran- 
kin is a type 



CHAPTER XV— ABOLITIONISTS, 

1835-1841 

94. A Western Abolition Argument 

(1824) 

THESE difficulties, however, should be considered as 
so many arguments in favor of the work. If but a 
httle good can be done, it is the more necessary that that 
little should be done. That involuntary slavery is a very 
dangerous evil, and that our nation is involved in it, none 
can, with truth, deny. And that the safety of our govern- 
ment, and the happiness of its subjects, depend upon the 
extermination of this evil, must be obvious to every enlight- 
ened mind. Nor is it less evident, that it is the duty of 
every citizen, according to his station, talents and oppor- 
tunity, to use suitable exertions for the abolition of an evil 
which is pregnant with the growing principles of ruin. 
Surely, no station should be unimproved, no talent, however 
small, should be buried ; nor should any opportunity of 
doing good be lost, when the safety of a vast nation, and 
the happiness of miUions of the human family, demand 
prompt and powerful exertions. Every thing that can be 
done, either by fair discussion, or by any other lawful means, 
ought to be done, and done speedily, in order to avert the 
hastening ruin that must otherwise soon overtake us ! 

Let all the friends of justice and suffering humanity, do 

what little they can, in their several circles, and according 

to their various stations, capacities and opportunities ; and 

all their little streams of exertion will, in process of time, 

242 



No. 94] A Western Argument 243 



flow together, and constitute a mighty river that shall sweep 
away the yoke of oppression, and purge our nation from the 
abominations of slavery. . . . 

. . . And here I must remark upon one main objection to 
the emancipation of slaves ; it is that they are, in conse- 
quence of the want of information, incapacitated for freedom, 
and that it is necessary to detain them in bondage until 
they may be better prepared for liberation ; but from the 
preceding remarks it is abundantly evident that they are 
now better prepared with respect to information, for eman- 
cipation than they will be at any future period, and that less 
inconvenience and danger would attend their liberation at 
the present, than at any future time. It must be obvious to 
every one, capable of discernment, that the inconvenience 
and danger of emancipation will increase in proportion as 
slaves become more numerous. Indeed all the difficulties 
that attend emancipation are rapidly increasing ; and they 
must certainly be endured at some period, sooner or later ; 
for it is most absurd to imagine that such an immense body 
of people, most rapidly increasing, can always be retained 
in bondage ; and therefore it is much better to endure those 
difficulties now than it will be when they shall have grown 
to the most enormous size. . . . 

. . . Now take a view of the slave population in the 
United States, and you will see that a vast quantity of the 
very best talent is entirely suppressed by want of suitable 
means of improvement — it lies buried deeply in the wreck 
of liberty, and the cruel hand of oppression draws around 
it the dark shades of endless night. Thus brilliant talents, 
immortal powers, designed to enrich, illuminate and ag- 
grandize the world, lie dormant and useless beneath the 
grossest covering of unavoidable ignorance ! and all that is 
noble and grand in our nature, wastes in the drudgery of a 
servile life ! Were all the talent that is now suppressed by 
slavery, in all our slaveholding states, properly improved, 



of the West- 
ern abolition- 
ists who pre- 
ceded and 
later joined 
William 
Lloyd Garri- 
son ; and this 
piece is an 
example of 
the abolition 
argument 
against slav- 
ery. — On 
abolition, see 
above, Nos. 

35. 46 ; 
bibliogra- 
phies in 
McDougall, 
Fugitive 
Slaves, 
and Siebert, 
Under- 
ground Rail- 
road; and 
extracts in 
American 
Orations, 
II (entirely 
devoted to 
slavery 
speeches), 
American 
History 
Studies, I, 
Nos. 6, 7 ; 
Contempora- 
ries, III, ch. 
II, Nos. 2, 5, 



EKNOR 

George 



244 Slavery and Abolition [1835 

liberated, and brought into action, how vastly would it add 
to the strength, wealth, and intelligence of our nation ! . . . 
We are commanded to * do justly and love mercy,' and 
this we ought to do without delay, and leave the conse- 
quences attending it to the control of Him who gave the 
command. We ought also to remember that no excuse for 
disobedience will avail us any thing when he shall call us 
to judgment. If we refuse to do the Africans justice, we 
may expect the supreme Governor of the world to avenge 
their wrongs, and cause their own arm to make them free ! 
Hence, our own safety demands their liberation. Hold 
them in bondage, and you will inure them to hardship, and 
prepare them for the day of battle. You will also keep them 
together, increase their numbers, and enable them to over- 
power the nation. Their enormous increase, beyond that of 
the white population, is truly alarming. But liberate them, 
and their increase will become proportionate to the rest of 
the nation. They will scatter over this Union — many of 
them will emigrate to Hayti and Africa. Prepare them for 
citizenship, and give them the privileges of free men, and 
they will have no inducements to do us harm ; but persist 
in oppressing them, and ruin will eventually burst upon our 
nation. The storm is gathering fast — dismal clouds al- 
ready begin to darken our horizon ! A few more years, and 
the work of death will commence ! 

John Rankin, Letters on Americati Slat/ery (second edition, 
Newburyport, 1836), Preface, iii-iv, and 2^^.-117 passim. 



By Gov- 95. A Southern Defence of Slavery (1835) 



McDuFFiE T~]^OR the institution of domestic slavery we hold our- 
(about 1788- J^ selves responsible only to God, and it is utterly 
McDuffie incompatible with the dignity and the safety of the State, 




1^ > .1 ,t i 







n 




o ^ 

Q ^ 



B > 



^ ^ <ji 



s ? a: 






.S o 



(-. <D 



No. 95] A Southern Defence 245 

to permit any foreign authority to question our right to was a sup- 
mamtain it. It may nevertheless be appropriate, as a vol- P^^'^'-^f 
untary token of our respect for the opinions of our confed- Ja"cS, 
erate brethren, to present some views to their consideration tiot blt^S 
on this subject, calculated to disabuse their minds of false the"Jov-n" 
opinions and pernicious prejudices 2'^"' ^"d 

XT 1 . . . ^ ■" ' south Caro- 

WO human institution, in my opinion, is more manifestly ''"^.became 
consistent with the will of God, than domestic slavery and S'^tt" 
no one of his ordinances is written in more legible characters llL^'t'"' 
than that which consigns the African race to this condition Senate and 
as more conducive to their own happiness, than any othe; g^veto^f 
ot which they are susceptible. Whether we consult the ^'' ^'^'^' ■ 
sacred Scriptures, or the lights of nature and reason, we shall offiTe'S" 
find these truths as abundantly apparent, as if written with He^e^aS 
a sun beam in the heavens. Under both the Jewish and Chris ""'"fixation 
tian dispensations of our religion, domestic slavery existed TJion^r 
with the unequivocal sanction of its prophets, its aposdes and ^eV^dT 
finally its great Author. The patriarchs themselves those ary nTeasure. 
chosen instruments of God, were slave-holders. In Lt the fTom wS' 
divme sanction of this institution is so plainly written that l^? P'^'^^ '^ 
"he who runs may read " it, and those over-righteous pre- SuoThe 
tenders and Pharisees, who effect to be scandalized by its n^TfeSr- 
existence among us, would do well to inquire how much i^*"^^'" 
more nearly they walk in the ways of Godliness, than did Sry?nd 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That the African negro is des- *i^^°fhercur- 
tmed by Providence to occupy this condition of servile whihlt"^^ °' 
dependence, is not less manifest. It is marked on the face, pSs'thT 
stamped on the skin, and evinced by the intellectual infe- ^'^^^ of the 
rmrity and natural improvidence of this race. They have all TZTJZ 

tltZom\t'r^ '' !'T f ''"'"' '"' "°^ °"^ °^ ^^°^^ -"SX 

tnat would fit them to be freemen. They are utterly un- ^™ 'waders, 

qualified not only for rational freedom, but for self-govern- ^f^Ssl^e 

ment of any kind. -They are, in all respects, physical ^-f— - 

moral and political, inferior to millions of the human race' ^aZ No. 

who have for consecutive ages, dragged out a wretched o?he7fouth- 



246 slavery and Abolition [1835 



ern defences 
of slavery, 
see Nos. 91 
above and 
113 below; 
Contempora- 
ries, III, ch. 



AH this argu- 
ment was 
disproved by 
the result of 
the Civil 
War. 



Scripture 
authority was 
a favorite 
argument 
down to 
1861. 



existence under a grinding political despotism, and who are 
doomed to this hopeless condition by the very qualities 
which unfit them for a better. It is utterly astonishing that 
any enlightened American, after contemplating all the mani- 
fold forms in which even the white race of mankind are 
doomed to slavery and oppression, should suppose it possi- 
ble to reclaim the African race from their destiny. The 
capacity to enjoy freedom is an attribute not to be com- 
municated by human power. It is an endowment of God, 
and one of the rarest which it has pleased his inscrutable 
wisdom to bestow upon the nations of the earth. It is con- 
ferred as the reward of merit, and only upon those who are 
qualified to enjoy it. Until the " Ethiopian can change 
his skin," it will be vain to attempt, by any human power, 
to make freemen of those whom God has doomed to be 
slaves, by all their attributes. 

Let not, therefore, the misguided and designing inter- 
meddlers who seek to destroy our peace, imagine that they 
are serving the cause of God by practically arraigning the 
decrees of his Providence. Indeed it would scarcely excite 
surprise, if with the impious audacity of those who projected 
the tower of Babel, they should attempt to scale the battle- 
ments of Heaven, and remonstrate with the God of wisdom 
for having put the mark of Cain and the curse of Ham upon 
the African race, instead of the European. . . . 

It is perfectly evident that the destiny of the Negro race 
is, either the worst possible form of political slavery, or else 
domestic servitude as it exists in the slaveholding States. 
The advantage of domestic slavery over the most favorable 
condition of political slavery, does not admit of a question. 
It is the obvious interest of the master, not less than his 
duty, to provide comfortable food and clothing for his slaves ; 
and whatever false and exaggerated stories may be propa- 
gated by mercenary travellers, who make a trade of exchang- 
ing calumny for hospitality, the peasantry and operatives of 



No. 95] A Southern Defence 247 

no country in the world are better provided for, in these 
respects, than the slaves of our country. . . . 

. . . They habitually labor from two to four hours a day less 
than the operatives in other countries, and it has been truly 
remarked, by some writer, that a negro cannot be made to 
injure himself by excessive labor. It may be safely affirmed 
that they usually eat as much wholesome and substantial 
food in one day, as English operatives or Irish peasants eat The testi- 
in two. And as it regards concern for the ftiture, their con- "rav'diers 
dition may well be envied even by their masters. There is contradicts 

this stS-te- 

not upon the face of the earth, any class of people, high or ment. 
low, so perfectly free from care and anxiety. They know 
that their masters will provide for them, under all circum- 
stances, and that in the extremity of old age, instead of 
being driven to beggary or to seek public charity in a poor- 
house, they will be comfortably accommodated and kindly 
treated among their relatives and associates. . . . 

In a word, our slaves are cheerful, contented and happy, 
much beyond the general condition of the human race, 
except where those foreign intruders and fatal ministers of 
mischief, the emancipationists, hke their arch-prototype in 
the Garden of Eden, and actuated by no less envy, have 
tempted them to aspire above the condition to which they 
have been assigned in the order of Providence. 

Nor can it be admitted, as some of our own statesmen 
have affirmed, in a mischievous and misguided spirit of 
sickly sentimentality, that our system of domestic slavery is 
a curse to the white population — a moral and political evil, 
much to be deplored, but incapable of being eradicated. 
Let the tree be judged by its fruit. . . . 

. . . where the menial offices and dependent employ- calhoun 
ments of society are performed by domestic slaves, a class elaborated 
well defined by their color and entirely separated from the that "slavery 
political body, the rights of property are perfectly secure, ^^^ ^ P°^lr 
without the establishment of artificial barriers. In a word, See Ameri- 



can Orations, 
II, 123. 



See Ste- 
phens, be- 
low, No. 113. 



248 Slavery and Abolition [1835 

the institution of domestic slavery supercedes the necessity 
of an order of nobility, and all the other appendages of a 
hereditary system of government. . . . 

Domestic slavery, therefore, instead of being a political 
evil, is the corner stone of our repubUcan edifice. No 
patriot who justly estimates our privileges will tolerate the 
idea of emancipation, at any period, however remote, or on 
any conditions of pecuniary advantage, however favorable [.] 
I would as soon think of opening a negociation for selling 
the liberty of the State at once, as for making any stipula- 
tions for the ultimate emancipation of our slaves. So deep 
is my conviction on this subject, that if I were doomed to 
die immediately after recording these sentiments, I could 
say in all sincerity and under all the sanctions of Christianity 
and patriotism, "God forbid that my descendants, in the 
remotest generations, should live in any other than a com- 
munity having the institution of domestic slavery, as it ex- 
isted among the patriarchs of the primitive Church and in 
all the free states of antiquity." 

Journal of the General Assembly of South Carolina, 1835 (ap- 
pended to Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly . . . 
passed in December, 183b, Columbia, 1837), ^-Z passim. 



By William 
Lloyd Gar- 
rison 

(1805-1879), 
a colleague 
of Benjamin 
Lundy in 
publishing 
the Genius 
of Universal 
Rynancipa- 
tioti in Boston 
in 1828. On 
Jan. I, 1831, 
Garrison 
founded the 



96. An Anti- Abolitionist Mob (1835) 

THE sign being demolished, the cry for " Garrison ! " 
was renewed, more loudly than ever. It was now 
apparent that the multitude would not disperse until I had 
left the building \ and as egress out of the front door was 
impossible, the Mayor and his assistants, as well as some of 
my friends, earnestly besought me to effect my escape in the 
rear of the building. . . . 

Preceded by my faithful and beloved friend Mr. J 



No. 96] 



Garrison Riot 



249 



R C , I dropped from a back window on to a shed, 

and narrowly escaped falling headlong to the ground. We 
entered into a carpenter's shop, through which we attempted 
to get into Wilson's Lane, but found our retreat cut off by 
the mob. They raised a shout as soon as we came in sight, 
but the workmen promptly closed the door of the shop, kept 
them at bay for a time, and thus kindly afforded me an 
opportunity to find some other passage. I told Mr. C. it 
would be futile to attempt to escape — I would go out to 
the mob, and let them deal with me as they might elect ; 
but he thought it was my duty to avoid them as long as pos- 
sible. We then went up stairs, and, finding a vacancy in one 
corner of the room, I got into it, and he and a young lad 
piled up some boards in front of me to shield me from 
observation. In a few minutes several ruffians broke into 
the chamber, who seized Mr. C. in a rough manner, and led 
him out to the view of the mob, saying, " This is not Gar- 
rison, but Garrison's and Thompson's friend, and he says he 
knows where Garrison is, but won't tell." Then a shout of 
exultation was raised by the mob, and what became of him 
I do not know ; though, as I was immediately discovered, I 
presume he escaped without material injury. 

On seeing me, three or four of the rioters, uttering a yell, 
furiously dragged me to the window, with the intention of 
hurling me from that height to the ground ; but one of them 
relented and said — "Don't let us kill him outright." So 
they drew me back, and coiled a rope about my body — 
probably to drag me through the streets. I bowed to the 
mob, and, requesting them to wait patiently until I could 
descend, went down upon a ladder that was raised for that 
purpose. I fortunately extricated myself from the rope, and 
was seized by two or three powerful men, to whose firmness, 
policy and muscular energy I am probably indebted for my 
preservation. They led me along bareheaded, (for I had 
lost my hat) , through a mighty crowd, ever and anon shout- 



Liberator in 
Boston, and 
continued to 
publish it for 
thirty-five 
years, until 
the abolition 
of slavery 
was finally 
secured. 
The incident 
described 
below illus- 
trates the 
kind of perse- 
cution to 
which he and 
men like him 
were exposed 
during this 
period. The 
Boston mob 
was occa- 
sioned by a 
meeting of 
the Boston 
Female Anti- 
Slavery So- 
ciety, on Oct. 
21, 183s, 
at which it 
was rumored 
that the Eng- 
lish aboli- 
tionist, 
Thompson, 
was to speak. 
Garrison's 
account is a 
good sample 
of his vigor- 
ous style of 
writing. — 
For Garri- 
son, see Life 
of Garrison- 
by his Ckil- 
dre?i{t\.vo\s.). 
— For anti- 
abolition 
mobs, see 
Contempora- 
ries, III, ch. 



The sign 



250 slavery and Abolition [1835 



" Anti-Slav- 
ery Rooms," 
exciting the 
fury of the 
mob, was at 
their demand 
promptly 
given them 
by the mayor, 
and was in- 
stantly 
broken into 
fragments. 

"1— R— C— *■ 
=John Reid 
Campbell. 

Garrison 
always re- 
sented the 
report that 
the rope was 
about his 
neck. 



ing, " He shan't be hurt ! You shan't hurt him ! Don't 
hurt him ! He is an American," &c., &c. This seemed to 
excite sympathy among many in the crowd, and they re- 
iterated the cry, " He shan't be hurt ! " I was thus conducted 
through Wilson's Lane into State Street, in the rear of the 
City Hall, over the ground that was stained with the blood 
of the first martyrs in the cause of Liberty and Indepen- 
dence, by the memorable massacre of 1770 — and upon 
which was proudly unfurled, only a few years since, with 
joyous acclamations, the beautiful banner presented to the 
gallant Poles by the young men of Boston ! . . . 

Orders were now given to carry me to the Mayor's office 
in the City Hall. As we approached the south door, the 
Mayor attempted to protect me by his presence ; but as he 
was unassisted by any show of authority or force, he was 
quickly thrust aside — and now came a tremendous rush on 
the part of the mob to prevent my entering the Hall. For 
a moment, the conflict was dubious — but my sturdy sup- 
porters carried me safely up to the Mayor's room. . . . 

Having had my clothes rent asunder, one individual kindly 
lent me a pair of pantaloons — another, a coat — a third, a 
stock — a fourth, a cap as a substitute for my lost hat. After 
a consultation of fifteen or twenty minutes, the Mayor and 
his advisers came to the singular conclusion, that the building 
would be endangered by my continuing in it, and that the 
preservation of my life depended upon committing me to 
jail, ostensibly as a disturber of the peace ! ! A hack was 
got in readiness at the door to receive me — and, supported 
by Sheriff Parkman and Ebenezer Bailey, Esq. (the Mayor 
leading the way), I succeeded in getting into it without 
much difficulty, as I was not readily identified in my new 
garb. Now came a scene that baffles the power of descrip- 
tion. As the ocean, lashed into fury by the spirit of the 
storm, seeks to whelm the adventurous bark beneath its 
mountain waves — so did the mob, enraged by a series of 



No. 97] Garrison Riot 251 

disappointments, rush like a whirlwind upon the frail vehicle 
in which I sat, and endeavor to drag me out of it. Escape 
seemed a physical impossibility. They clung to the wheels — 
dashed open the doors — seized hold of the horses — and 
tried to upset the carriage. They were, however, vigorously 
repulsed by the police — a constable sprang in by my side — 
the doors were closed — and the driver, lustily using his 
whip upon the bodies of his horses and the heads of the 
rioters, happily made an opening through the crowd, and 
drove at a tremendous speed for Leverett Street. But many 
of the rioters followed even with superior swiftness, and 
repeatedly attempted to arrest the progress of the horses. 
To reach the jail by a direct course was found impracticable ; 
and after going in a circuitous direction, and encountering 
many " hair-breadth 'scapes," we drove up to this new and 
last refuge of liberty and life, when another bold attempt 
was made to seize me by the mob — but in vain. In a few 
moments I was locked up in a cell, safe from my persecutors, 
accompanied by two delightful associates, a good conscience 
and a cheerful mind." . . . 

[Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison, edi- 
tors,] IVilliam Lloyd Garrison. iSo^-iSyg. The Story of 
his Life told by his Children (New York, 1885), II, 18-27 
passim. 



97. The Internal Slave-Trade (1834) ??iSam' 

Feather- 

JUST as we reached New River, in the early grey of the (1780-1866), 
morning, we came up with a singular spectacle, the most man'"^''^^' 
striking one of the kind I have ever witnessed. It was who spent 
a camp of negro slave-drivers, just packing up to start ; they oflils early 
had about three hundred slaves with them, who had biv- ''fe in North 

' America. 

Quacked the precedmg night in chains in the woods; these Owing to his 



252 slavery and Abolition [1834 



extended 
knowledge ot 
the country, 
the British 
government 
made him 
one of the 
commission- 
ers to settle 
the bounda- 
ries of the 
United 
States under 
the Ashbur- 
ton Treaty. 
In 1844 he 
published the 
book from 
which this 
extract is 
taken, in 
which he 
freely dis- 
cusses the in- 
stitution of 
slavery. His 
judgments, 
though se- 
vere, are fair- 
minded and 
discriminat- 
ing. — For 
English trav- 
ellers, see 
Tuckerman, 
America and 
her Commen- 
tators. — On 
the external 
slave-trade, 
see DuBois, 
Suppression 
of tke Slave- 
Trade. — On 
the internal 
slave-trade, 
see Contem- 
poraries, III, 
No. 

" New 
River," a 
name given 
to the Great 
Kanawha in 
the upper 



they were conducting to Natchez, upon the Mississippi 
River, to work upon the sugar plantations in Louisiana. . . . 
they had a caravan of nine waggons and single-horse car- 
riages, for the purpose of conducting the white people, and 
any of the blacks that should fall lame, to which they were 
now putting the horses to pursue their march. The female 
slaves were, some of them, sitting on logs of wood, whilst 
others were standing, and a great many little black children 
were warming themselves at the fires of the bivouac. In 
front of them all, and prepared for the march, stood, in 
double files, about two hundred male slaves, matiacled and 
chained to each other. I had never seen so revolting a sight 
before ! Black men in fetters, torn from the lands where 
they were born, from the ties they had formed, and from 
the comparatively easy condition which agricultural labour 
affords, and driven by white men, with liberty and equality 
in their mouths, to a distant and unhealthy country, to perish 
in the sugar- mills of Louisiana, where the duration of life for 
a sugar-mill slave does not exceed seven years ! To make 
this spectacle still more disgusting and hideous, some of 
the principal white slave-drivers, who were tolerably well 
dressed, and had broad-brimmed white hats on, with black 
crape round them, were standing near, laughing and smoking 
cigars. . . . 

It was an interesting, but a melancholy spectacle, to see 
them effect the passage of the river : first, a man on horse- 
back selected a shallow place in the ford for the male slaves ; 
then followed a waggon and four horses, attended by another 
man on horseback. The other waggons contained the chil- 
dren and some that were lame, whilst the scows, or flat- 
boats, crossed the women and some of the people belonging 
to the caravan. There was much method and vigilance 
observed, for this was one of the situations where the gangs 
— always watchful to obtain their liberty — often show a dis- 
position to mutiny, knowing that if one or two of them could 



No. 97] 



Internal Trade 



253 



wrench their manacles off, they could soon free the rest, and part of its 
either disperse themselves or overpower and slay their sordid 
keepers, and fly to the Free States. The slave-drivers, 
aware of this disposition in the unfortunate negroes, en- 
deavour to mitigate their discontent by feeding them well on 
the march, and by encouraging them to sing "Old Virginia 
never tire,"' to the banjo. 

. . . these gangs are accompanied by other negroes 
trained by the slave-dealers to drive the rest, whom they 
amuse by lively stories, boasting of the fine warm climate 
they are going to, and of the oranges and sugar which are 
there to be had for nothing : in proportion as they recede 
from the Free States, the danger of revolt diminishes, for in 
the Southern Slave-States all men have an interest in pro- 
tecting this infernal trade of slave-driving, which, to the 
negro, is a greater curse than slavery itself, since it too often 
dissevers for ever those affecting natural ties which even a 
slave can form, by tearing, without an instant's notice, the 
husband from the wife, and the children from their parents ; 
sending the one to the sugar plantations of Louisiana, an- 
other to the cotton-lands of Arkansas, and the rest to 
Texas. . . . 

The uncompromising obloquy which has been cast at the The slave- 
Southern planters, by their not too scrupulous adversaries, despised by 
is . . . not deserved by them ; and it is but fair to consider ^^^ siave- 
them as only indirectly responsible for such scenes as arise 
out of the revolting traffic which is carried on by these sor- 
did, illiterate, and vulgar slave-drivers — men who can have 
nothing whatever in common with the gentlemen of the 
Southern states. This land traffic, in fact, has grown out of 
the wide-spreading population of the United States, the an- 
nexation of Louisiana, and the increased cultivation of cotton 
and sugar. The fertile lowlands of that territory can only 
be worked by blacks, and are almost of illimitable extent. 
Hence negroes have risen greatly in price, from 500 to 1000 



holder. 



2 54 Slavery and Abolition [1834 

They rose dollars, according to their capacity. Slaves being thus in 
upwanis ^^ demand, a detestable branch of business — where sometimes 
^^'fi^*^8is ^^^° ^ great deal of money is made — has very naturally arisen in 
a country filled with speculators. The soil of Virginia has 
gradually become exhausted with repeated crops of tobacco 
and Indian corn ; and when to this is added the constant 
subdivision of property which has overtaken every family 
since the abolition of entails, it follows of course that many 
of the small proprietors, in their efforts to keep up appear- 
ances, have become embarrassed in their circumstances, 
and, when they are pinched, are compelled to sell a negro 
or two. The wealthier proprietors also have frequently frac- 
tious and bad slaves, which, when they cannot be reclaimed, 
are either put into jail, or into those depots which exist 
in all the large towns for the reception of slaves who are 
sold, until they can be removed. All this is very well known 
to the slave-driver, one of whose associates goes annually to 
the Southwestern States, to make his contracts with those 
planters there who are in want of slaves for the next season. 
These fellows then scour the country to make purchases. 
Those who are bought out of jail are always put in fetters, 
as well as any of those whom they may suspect of an inten- 
tion to escape. The women and grown-up girls are usually 
sold into the cotton-growing States, the men and the boys to 
the rice and sugar plantations. Persons with large capital 
are actively concerned in this trade, some of whom have 
amassed considerable fortunes. But occasionally these deal- 
ers in men are made to pay fearfully the penalty of their 
nefarious occupation. I was told that only two or three 
months before I passed this way a " gang " had surprised 
their conductors when off their guard, and had killed some 
of them with axes. 

G. W. Featherstonhaugh, Excjirsion through the Slave States 
(New York, 1844), ^6-^8 passim. 



No. 98] A Slave's Narrative 255 



98. A Slave's Narrative (1844) 

I AM about sixty-five years old. I was born near Eden- 
ton, North Carolina. My master was very kind to his 
slaves. If an overseer whipped them, he turned him away. 
He used to whip them himself sometimes, with hickory 
switches as large as my little finger. My mother nursed all 
his children. She was reckoned a very good servant ; and 
our mistress made it a point to give one of my mother's 
children to each of her own. I fell to the lot of Elizabeth, 
her second daughter. It was my business to wait upon her. 
Oh, my old mistress was a kind woman. She was all the 
same as a mother to poor Charity. If Charity wanted to 
learn to spin, she let her learn ; if Charity wanted to learn 
to knit, she let her learn ; if Charity wanted to learn to 
weave, she let her learn. I had a wedding when I was 
married ; for mistress didn't like to have her people take 
up with one another, without any minister to marry them. 
When my dear good mistress died, she charged her children 
never to separate me and my husband ; " For," said she, 
" if ever there was a match made in heaven, it was Charity 
and her husband." My husband was a nice good man ; 
and mistress knew we set stores by one another. Her 
children promised they never would separate me from my 
husband and children. Indeed, they used to tell me they 
would never sell me at all ; and I am sure they meant what 
they said. But my young master got into trouble. He 
used to come home and sit leaning his head on his hand by 
the hour together, without speaking to any body. I see 
something was the matter ; and I begged of him to tell me 
what made him look so worried. He told me he owed 
seventeen hundred dollars, that he could not pay ; and he 
was afraid he should have to go to prison. I begged him to 
sell me and my children, rather than to go to jail. I see 



By Charity 
Bowery 
(born 1779). 
This narra- 
tive of a slave 
woman, who 
had been 
freed by the 
will of her 
master and 
had after- 
ward come 
North, gives a 
fairly typical, 
and not over- 
drawn, 
picture of the 
condition of 
a slave in the 
second quar- 
ter of this 
century. The 
narrative is 
simple and 
bears inter- 
nal marks of 
sincerity. — 
See a bibli- 
ography of 
slave narra- 
tives in Sie- 
bert, Utider- 
ground Rail- 
road. — 
Other narra- 
tives below, 
No. 100; 
Contempora- 
ries. Ill, 
Nos. 



256 slavery and Abolition [1844 



the tears come into his eyes. " I don't know, Charity," 
said he ; " I'll see what can be done. One thing you may 
feel easy about ; I will never separate you from your hus- 
band and children, let what will come." 

Two or three days after, he come to me, and says he ; 
" Charity, how should you like to be sold to Mr. Kinmore ? " 
I told him I would rather be sold to him than to any body 
else, because my husband belonged to him. My husband 
was a nice good man, and we set stores by one another. 
Mr. Kinmore agreed to buy us ; and so I and my children 
went there to live. He was a kind master ; but as for 
mistress Kinmore, she was a divil ! Mr. Kinmore died 



a few years after he bought us ; and in his Will he give me 
and my husband free ; but I never knowed anything about 
it, for years afterward. I don't know how they managed it. 



In most 

cases the 
wives and 
daughters of 

took a kindly My poor husband died, and never knowed that he was free. 
skve?'""'^ But it's all the same now. He's among the ransomed. . . . 

Sixteen children I've had, first and last ; and twelve I've 
nursed for my mistress. From the time my first baby was 
born, I always set my heart upon buying freedom for some 
of my children. I thought it was of more consequence to 
them, than to me ; for I was old, and used to being a slave. 
But mistress Kinmore wouldn't let me have my children. 
One after another — one after another — she sold 'em away 
from me. Oh, how many times that woman's broke my 
heart ! 

... I tried every way I could, to lay up a copper to buy 
my children ; but I found it pretty hard ; for mistress kept 
me at work all the time. It was " Charity ! Charity ! 
Charity!" from morning till night. 

I used to do the washings of the family ; and large wash- 
ings they were. The public road run right by my little hut ; 
and I thought to myself, while I stood there at the wash- 
tub, I might, just as well as not, be earning something to 
buy my children. So I set up a httle oyster-board ; and 



No. 98] A Slave's Narrative 257 

when anybody come along, that wanted a few oysters and a 
cracker, I left my wash-tub and waited upon him. When I 
got a little money laid up, I went to my mistress and tried 
to buy one of my children. She knew how long my heart 
had been set upon it, and how hard I had worked for it. 
But she wouldn't let me have one ! — She wotddn't let me 
have one ! So, I went to work again ; and set up late o' 
nights, in hopes I could earn enough to tempt her. When 
I had two hundred dollars, I went to her again; but she 
thought she could find a better market, and she wouldn't let 
me have one. At last, what do you think that woman did? 
She sold me and five of my children to the speculators ! 
Oh, how I did feel, when I heard my children was sold to 
the speculators ! . . . 

Surely, ma'am, there's always some good comes of being 
kind to folks. While I kept my oyster-board, there was a 
thin, peaked-looking man, used to come and buy of me. 
Sometimes he would say, " Aunt Charity, (he always called 
me Atint Charity,) you must fix me up a nice little mess, 
for I feel poorly to-day." I always made something good 
for him ; and if he didn't happen to have any change, I 
always trusted him. He liked my messes mighty well. — 
Now, who do you think that should turn out to be, but the 
very speculator that bought me ! He come to me, and 
says he, " Aunt Charity (he always called me Aunt Charity,) 
you've been very good to me, and fixed me up many a 
nice little mess, when I've been poorly ; and now you shall 
have your freedom for it, and I'll give you your youngest 
child." . . . 

Well . . . after that I concluded I'd come to the Free 
States. . . . Here I have taken in washing ; and my daughter 
is smart at her needle ; and we get a very comfortable living. 

L[ydia] Maria Child, Letters from New-York (Second Series, 
New York, etc., 1845), 48-53 passitn. 



258 slavery and Abolition [1838 



By John 
Gkkeni.eaf 
Whittikr 
(1807-1892). 
Probably liis 
youthful 
friendship 
with Garri- 
son drew him 
early into the 
anti-slavery 
movement, 
in which, 
through both 
verse and 
prose, his pen 
did valiant 
service for 
the cause. 
In 1836 he 
became sec- 
retary of the 
American 
Anti-Slavery 
Society ; 
from 1847 to 
1859 he con- 
tributed edi- 
torials to the 
anti-slavery 
National 
jfcVij!, in which 
Uncle Tom's 
Cabin was 
first printed. 
Whittier was 
interested in 
practical 
politics, and 
had much to 
do with the 
formation of 
the new Re- 
publican 
party in 1854. 
His burning 
verses had a 
wonderful 
effect on 
Northern 
public 
opinion. — 
See other 
anti-slavery 



99. Farewell of a Slave Mother (1838) 



G' 



ONE, gone — sold and gone, 
To the rice-swamp dank and lone. 

Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings, 

Where the noisome insect stings, 

Where the fever demon strews 

Poison with the falling dews. 

Where the sickly sunbeams glare 

Through the hot and misty air, — 
Gone, gone — sold and gone. 
To the rice-swamp dank and lone, 
From Virginia's hills and waters, — 
Woe is me, my stolen daughters ! 

Gone, gone — sold and gone, 
To the rice-swamp dank and lone. 
There no mother's eye is near them. 
There no mother's ear can hear them ; 
Never, when the torturing lash 
Seams their back with many a gash, 
Shall a mother's kindness bless them, 
Or a mother's arms caress them. 
Gone, gone — sold and gone. 
To the rice-swamp dank and lone. 
From Virginia's hills and waters, — 
Woe is me, my stolen daughters ! 

Gone, gone — sold and gone. 
To the rice-swamp dank and lone. 

Oh, when weary, sad, and slow, 

From the fields at night they go. 

Faint with toil, and racked with pain, 

To their cheerless homes again — 



No. 99] A Slave's Farewell 259 



There no brother's voice shall greet them • 
There no father's welcome meet them. 
Gone, gone — sold and gone, 
To the rice-swamp dank and lone, 
From Virginia's hills and waters, — 
Woe is me, my stolen daughters ! 



poems in 
Contempora- 
ries, 111, 
Nos. 



Gone, gone — sold and gone, 
To the rice-swamp dank and lone. 
From the tree whose shadow lay 
On their childhood's place of play — 
From the cool spring where they drank — 
Rock, and hill, and rivulet bank — 
From the solemn house of prayer, 
And the holy counsels there — 
Gone, gone — sold and gone, 
To the rice-swamp dank and lone, 
From Virginia's hills and waters, — 
Woe is me, my stolen daughters ! 



The rice 
plantations 
were the most 
unhealthful 
of all the 
places of 
slave labor. 



Gone, gone — sold and gone, 
To the rice-swamp dank and lone — 
Toiling through the weary day. 
And at night the spoiler's prey. 
Oh, that they had earher died. 
Sleeping calmly, side by side. 
Where the tyrant's power is o'er, 
And the fetter galls no more ! 

Gone, gone — sold and gone, 
To the rice-swamp dank and lone, 
From Virginia's hills and waters, — 
Woe is me, my stolen daughters ! 



Gone, gone — sold and gone, 

To the rice-swamp dank and lone. 



26o slavery and Abolition [1848 

By the holy love He beareth — 

By the bruised reed He spareth — 

Oh, may He, to whom alone 

All their cruel wrongs are known, 

Still their hope and refuge prove. 

With a more than a mother's love. 
Gone, gone — sold and gone. 
To the rice-swamp dank and lone, 
From Virginia's hills and waters, — 
Woe is me, my stolen daughters ! 

John G. Whittier, Poems (Boston, 1849), 163-165. 



By Henry 
Box Brown 
(born 1816), 
the phra- 
seology of 
whose narra- 
tive was 
undoubtedly 
refined by the 
person who 
wrote down 
his story for 
him. This is 
one of the 
most thrilling 
incidents in 
the annals of 
fugitive- 
slave history. 
The expedi- 
ent was not 
entirely new, 
however, for 
as early as 
1620 the cele- 
brated Hugo 
Grotius was 
got out of 
prison in a 
similar way. 
— Other 
cases are 



100. A Fugitive's Narrative (1848) 

AFTER searching for assistance for some time, I 
at length was so fortunate as to find a friend, 
who promised to assist me, for one half the money I had 
about me, which was one hundred and sixty-six dollars. I 
gave him eighty-six, and he was to do his best in forwarding 
my scheme. . . . 

At length, after praying earnestly to Him, who seeth afar 
off, for assistance, in my difficulty, suddenly, as if from above, 
there darted into my mind these words, " Go and get a box, 
and put yourself in it." I pondered the words over in my 
mind. "Get a box?" thought I ; "what can this mean?" 
But I was " not disobedient unto the heavenly vision," and I 
determined to put into practice this direction, as I consid- 
ered it, from my heavenly Father. I went to the depot, and 
there noticed the size of the largest boxes, which commonly 
were sent by the cars, and returned with their dimensions. 
I then repaired to a carpenter, and induced him to make 
me a box of such a description as I wished, informing him 



No. 100] A Fugitive 261 

of the use I intended to make of it. He assured me I could cited in 

not live in it ; but as it was dear liberty I was in pursuit of, puo-itivf^ ' 

I thought it best to make the trial. ^^^f^-^- ^^'^ 

When the box was finished, I carried it, and placed it Under- 

before my friend, who had promised to assist me, who asked f^^^"f_^'^^^' 

me if that was to "put my clothes in?" I repHed that it Other narra- 

1 ,, , j-T r> • , 11 TT , tives are in 

was not, but to "//^/' Henry Brown in / He was aston- contempora- 
ished at my temerity ; but I insisted upon his placing me in V}f^' ^^^< 
it, and nailing me up, and he finally consented. 

After corresponding with a friend in Philadelphia, arrange- 
ments were made for my departure, and I took my place in 
this narrow prison, with a mind full of uncertainty . . . 

I laid me down in my darkened home of three feet by two, 
and like one about to be guillotined, resigned myself to my 
fate. My friend was to accompany me, but he failed to do 
so ; and contented himself with sending a telegraph message 
to his correspondent in Philadelphia, that such a box was on 
its way to his care. 

I took with me a bladder filled with water to bathe my 
neck with, in case of too great heat ; and with no access to 
the fresh air, excepting three small gimblet holes, I started 
on my perilous cruise. I was first carried to the express 
office, the box being placed on its end, so that I started with 
my head downwards, although the box was directed, " this 
side up with care." From the express office, I was carried 
to the depot, and from thence tumbled roughly into the 
baggage car, where I happened to fall " right side up," but 
no thanks to my transporters. But after a while the cars 
stopped, and I was put aboard a steamboat, and placed on 
my head. In this dreadful position, I remained the space of 
an hour and a half, it seemed to me, when I began to feel of 
my eyes and head, and found to my dismay, that my eyes 
were almost swollen out of their sockets, and the veins on my 
temple seemed ready to burst. I made no noise however, 
determining to obtain "victory or death," but endured the 



262 slavery and Abolition [1848 

terrible pain, as well as I could, sustained under the whole 
by the thoughts of sweet liberty. About half an hour after- 
wards, I attempted again to lift my hands to my face, but I 
found I was not able to move them. A cold sweat now 
covered me from head to foot. Death seemed my inevit- 
able fate, and every moment I expected to feel the blood 
flowing over me, which had burst from my veins. One half 
hour longer and my sufferings would have ended in that fate, 
which I preferred to slavery ; but I lifted up my heart to 
God in prayer, believing that he would yet deliver me, when 
to my joy, I overheard two men say, " We have been here 
tivo hours and have travelled twenty miles, now let us sit 
down, and rest ourselves." They suited the action to the 
word, and turned the box over, containing my soul and body, 
thus delivering me from the power of the grim messenger of 
death, who a few moments previously, had aimed his fatal 
shaft at my head, and had placed his icy hands on my 
throbbing heart. . . . 

Soon after this fortunate event, we arrived at Washington, 
where I was thrown from the wagon and again as my luck 
would have it, fell on my head. I was then rolled down a 
declivity, until I reached the platform from which the cars 
were to start. During this short but rapid journey, my neck 
came very near being dislocated, as I felt it crack, as if it 
had snapped asunder. Pretty soon, I heard some one say, 
" there is no room for this box, it will have to remain be- 
hind." I then again applied to the Lord, my help in all 
my difficulties, and in a few minutes I heard a gentleman 
direct the hands to place it aboard, as " it came with the 
mail and must go on with it." I was then tumbled into the 
car, my head downwards again, as I seemed to be destmed 
to escape on my head ; a sign probably, of the opinion of 
American people respecting such bold adventurers as my- 
self; that our heads should be held downwards, whenever 
we attempt to benefit ourselves. Not the only instance of 



No. loi] A Fugitive 263 

this propensity, on the part of the American people, towards 
the colored race. We had not proceeded far, however, be- 
fore more baggage was placed in the car, at a stopping place, 
and I was again turned to my proper position. No farther 
difficulty occurred until my arrival at Philadelphia. I 
reached this place at three o'clock in the morning, and re- 
mained in the depot until six o'clock, a.m., at which time, 
a waggon drove up, and a person inquired for a box directed 
to such a place, " right side up." I was soon placed on this 
waggon, and carried to the house of my friend's correspon- 
dent, where quite a number of persons were waiting to 
receive me. They appeared to be some afraid to open the 
box at first, but at length one of them rapped upon it, and 
with a trembling voice, asked, "Is all right within?" to 
which I rephed, "All right." The joy of these friends was 
excessive, and like the ancient Jews, who repaired to the re- 
building of Jerusalem, each one seized hold of some tool, 
and commenced opening my grave. At length the cover 
was removed, and I arose, and shook myself from the leth- 
argy into which I had fallen ; but exhausted nature proved 
too much for my frame, and I swooned away. 

Charles Stearns, Narrative of Henry Box Brown . . . written 
from a statetnent of facts made by hiviself (Boston [1849]), 
58-62 passim. 



1 01. A Political Abolitionist (1845) By salmon 

Portland 
To ALL Friends of Liberty, and of our Country's (1808^1873) 

BEST interests. one of the 



F 



founders of 
the Liberty 



INALLY, we ask all true friends of liberty, of impartial, party, author 

universal liberty, to be firm and steadfast. The little form of that 

handful of voters, who, in 1840, wearied of compromising party in 1843, 

' '_ ^ ' r to and of manj 

expediency, and despairing of anti-slavery action by pro- other ami- 



264 slavery and Abolition [1845 



slavery ad- 
dresses ; 
leading spirit 
in the Free- 
Soil conven- 
tion of 1848 ; 
senator from 
Ohio, 1849- 
1855; gov- 
ernor of 
Ohio, 1856- 
1860; Secre- 
tary of the 
Treasury, 
1861-1864; 
Chiefjustice, 
1 865- 1 873. 
Chase was 
the most dis- 
tinguished of 
the numer- 
ous Western 
and Eastern 
abolitionists 
who declined 
to follow 
Garrison's 
lead, and 
used their 
votes to ac- 
complish 
their ends. 
The piece is 
one of many 
ringing polit- 
ical ad- 
dresses of 
the period. — 
On Chase, 
see Ameri- 
can Orations, 

III, 3. 333; 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, No. 

.— On the 
political 
movement 
against slav- 
ery, see 
American 
Orations, II, 
3-32, iis- 
340 ; Con- 
temporaries, 

IV, ch. 



slavery parties, raised anew the standard of the Declaration, 
and manfully resolved to vote right then and vote for free- 
dom, has already swelled to a Great Partv, strong enough, 
numerically, to decide the issue of any national contest, and 
stronger far in the power of its pure and elevating principles. 
And if these principles be sound, which we doubt not, and 
if the question of slavery be, as we verily believe it is, the 
GREAT QUESTION of our day and nation, it is a libel upon the 
intelligence, the patriotism, and the virtue of the American 
people to say that there is no hope that a majority will not 
array themselves under our banner. Let it not be said that 
we are factious or impracticable. We adhere to our views 
because we believe them to be sound, practicable and vitally 
important. We have already said that we are ready to prove 
our devotion to our principles by co-operation with either of 
the other two great American Parties, which will openly and 
honestly, in State and National Conventions, avow our doc- 
trines and adopt our measures, until slavery shall be over- 
thrown. We do not, indeed, expect any such adoption and 
avowal by either of those parties, because we are well aware 
that they fear more, at present, from the loss of slaveholding 
support than from the loss of anti-slavery co-operation. But 
we can be satisfied with nothing less, for we will compromise 
no longer ; and, therefore, must of necessity maintain our 
separate organization as the true Democratic Party of the 
country, and trust our cause to the patronage of the people 
and the blessing of God ! 

Carry then, friends of freedom and free labour, your prin- 
ciples to the ballot-box. Let no difficulties discourage, no 
dangers daunt, no delays dishearten you. Your solemn vow 
that slavery must perish is registered in heaven. Renew 
that vow ! Think of the martyrs of truth and freedom ; 
think of the millions of the enslaved ; think of the other 
millions of the oppressed and degraded free ; and renew 
that vow ! Be not tempted from the path of political duty. 



No. loi] Political Abolition 265 

Vote for no man, act with no party politically connected 
with the supporters of slavery. Vote for no man, act with 
no party unwilling to adopt and carry out the principles 
which we have set forth in this address. To compromise 
for any partial or temporary advantage is ruin to our cause. 
To act with any party, or to vote for the candidates of any 
party, which recognises the friends and supporters of slavery 
as members in full standing, because in particular places or 
under particular circumstances, it may make large profes- 
sions of anti-slavery zeal, is to commit political suicide. 
Unswerving fidelity to our principles; unalterable determi- 
nation to carry those principles to the ballot-box at every 
election ; inflexible and unanimous support of those, and 
only those, who are true to those principles, are the condi- 
tions of our ultimate triumph. Let these conditions be ful- 
filled, and our triumph is certain. The indications of its 
coming multiply on every hand. The clarion trump of free- 
dom breaks already the gloomy silence of slavery in Ken- 
tucky, and its echoes are heard throughout the land. A 
spirit of inquiry and of action is awakened everywhere. 
The assemblage of the convention, whose voice we utter, is 
itself an auspicious omen. Gathered from the North and 
the South, and the East and West, we here unite our coun- 
sels, and consolidate our action. We are resolved to go for- 
ward, knowing that our cause is just, trusting in God. We 
ask you to go forward with us, invoking His blessing who 
sent his Son to redeem mankind. With Him are the issues 
of all events. He can and He will disappoint all the devices 
of oppression. He can, and we trust He will, make our 
instrumentality efficient for the redemption of our land 
from slavery, and for the fulfilment of our fathers^ pledge in 
behalf of freedom, before Him and before the world. 

[Salmon P. Chase,] The Address of the Sotdhern and Western 
Liberty Convention held at Cincinnati, June ii &" 12, 184^ 
[no title-page ; Philadelphia, 1845], 15. 



By Charles 
Augustus 
Davis 
(1795-1867), 
a New York 
merchant, 
who wrote 
cleverly on 
commercial 
and financial 
questions. 
His Major 
Jack Dowti- 
ing Letters 
first ap- 
peared in the 
Commercial 
Advertiser in 
1834, and at 
once became 
very popular. 
Its humor, 
though keen, 
is never 
biting; Jack- 
son himself 
liked to 
read it. The 
passage here 
given well 
takes off 
Jackson's 
autocratic 
temper in his 
relations to 
the Bank, of 
which Nicho- 
las Biddle 
was presi- 
dent, and is 
at the same 
time an illus- 
tration of the 
newspaper 



CHAPTER XVI — TERRITORIAL 
DEVELOPMENT, 1841-1853 

102. Jackson's Responsibility (1833) 

* T)UT there is one thing, Major,' says the Gineral, 
±_) ' that I don't see how Biddle can git round ; and 

that is, how he dares to take upon himself to do what only 
could be done by the Directors. Look at the Charter; 
there it is as plain as A. B. C. He has no right to do a 
single thing, unless the Directors are all present, and agree 
to it.' ' Well,' says I, ' Gineral, that is a puzzler ; and yet 
all the Bank folks say he does right ; and its more their 
business than ourn. And,' says I, ' Gineral, come to think 
on't, and the notion never struck me before, but I begin 
now to believe that Squire Biddle is a rale Jackson man.' 

* Why,' says he, ' Major, you are as crazy as a mad rooster — 
how can you make that out ? ' ' Why,' says I, ' I do raly 
believe when the Squire did any thing without the Directors, 
he said, / ^ake the respotisibtlity.' The Gineral got up, 
stamp'd round a spell ; and, says he, ' Major, you beat all 
natur.' But this tickled the Gineral considerable. ' Well,' 
says he, ' Major, if I only knew he said so, I'd put all the 
deposits back again in the Bank to-morrow ; for I do like 
a man who aint afraid of responsibility.' 

We come nigh havin a pretty considerable riot here last 
night. I and the Gineral had been to bed about two hours, 
and had jest got threw talkin over matters, and got into a 
kinder doze, when we was startled by the tarnalest racket 
you ever hear tell on. The Gineral jump'd right on eend, 

266 



No. I02] Jackson's Responsibility 267 



and run and got his hickory, and I arter him, with the only 
thing I could get hold on handily — ' Never mind your 
Regimentals and Corderoys, Major,' says he, and down 
stairs we went, side by side, and I a leetle ahead on him ; 
— for I always like to lead into scrapes, and out of scrapes. 
There is a long room where the most of our folks git 
together, to talk over matters every night, and eat supper ; 
and sometimes they git into a kinder squabble, but keep 
quiet. But this time some how they was in a terrible takin 
and smashin things. They was all at it, Editors, and 
Auditors, and Secretaries' Clerks, and under Post Masters, 
and Contractors, jawin and poundin one another, and Amos 
among the thickest on em. The Gineral look'd on for about 
a minit, and, says he, * Major, shall I go in, or will you? I 
don't like to do it,' says he, ' for they have all done us much 
sarvice, but we cant let this riot go on.' ' Well,' says I, 
'Gineral, do you give me your Hickory,' and, says I, 'I'll 
go at 'em, and make short work.' ' Take care, Major,' says 
he, * how you hit, and who you hit.' ' Never, mind,' says I, 
* Gineral, I'll take the responsibility.' ' Will you,' says he ; 
'well, here's my Hickory; — for,' says he, 'Major, tho' I 
dare do eny most any thing, I must confess I dare not take 
that responsibility.' And with that he went to bed, and I 
went at 'em, and such a time I never had. The first cHp I 
made was at Amos, — but he dodged it, and I hit one of the 
Editors of the Globe, and nocked him about into the middle 
of next week. — One fellow got a fryin pan and made fight, 
but it was no use, for in less than a minit I cleared 'em all. 
As soon as they come to know who it was, they kinder tried 
to curry favor ; and one said one thing, and one another ; 
and every one tried to shuffle off upon the others ; it was a 
considerable spell before I could get the cause on't ; and 
then it turn'd out that the dispute began about the public 
deposits, and the next President, and a new Bank, and Mr. 
Duane and Squire Biddle, and Mr. Van Buren, — and all 



squibs of the 
day. " Major 
Jack Down- 
ing " is sup- 
posed to 
have been 
a good- 
humored 
caricature of 
Major Lewis, 
Jackson's in- 
timate friend 
and political 
adviser. — 
On Jackson, 
see Contem- 
poraries, III, 
ch. . — On 
the Bank, see 
American 
History Leaf- 
lets, No. 24 ; 
American 
History 
Studies, No. 
1 1 ; Contem- 
poraries, III, 
No. . 



A phrase 
used by Jack- 
son in a State 
paper. 



Amos Ken- 
dall, Post- 
master- 
General. 

The Globe 
was then a 
Jackson 
organ. 



Duane, 
former Sec- 
retary of the 
Treasury. 



268 



Territorial 



[1846 



Vice- 
President. 



mixed up so, I couldn't make head nor tail on't. ' Now,' 
says I, 'my boys, make an eend on't:' and with that I 
slap'd the old Hickory down on the table, and I made their 
teeth chatter. ' My dander is up,' says I ; ' and one word 
more and I'm down upon you. What,' says I, ' a riot here 
at midnight — aint it glory enuff for you,' says I, 'to sarve 
under the Gineral ? If it ain't,' says I, ' then I'm mistaken, 
and Mr. Van Buren too, — for he thinks it is, — and I think 
so too. And now,' says I, ' no more jawin ' — and I left 
them ; and when I got back to the Gineral, I found him in 
a terrible takin ; and it was nigh upon day light afore we 
could git to sleep. He was all the while talkin about Amos 
Kindle, and the rest on 'em ; and I do raly believe the 
Gineral would never have gone to sleep, unless I tell'd him 
I would stick by him ; and whenever the folks about us got 
into a snarl, if he would only lend me his Hickory, ' I'd 
take the responsibility.' 

Yours to Sarve, 

J. Downing, Major, 

Downingville Militia, 2d Brigade. 



[Charles Augustus Davis,] Letters of J. Downing, Major (New 
York, 1834), 103-107. 



By Francis 
Parkman, 
Tr. (1823- 

1893), great- 
est of Ameri- 
can histori- 
ans. In 
spite of the 
constant suf- 
fering attend- 
ant upon a 
long and 
wearying ill- 
ness ended 
only by 
death, Park- 



103. The Oregon Trail (1846) 

WE were now arrived at the close of our soUtary jour- 
neyings along the St. Josei)h's Trail. On the 
evening of the twenty-third of May we encamped near its 
junction with the old legitimate trail of the Oregon emi- 
grants. ... As we lay around the fire after supper, a low 
and distant sound, strange enough amid the loneliness of 
the prairie, reached our ears — peals of laughter, and the 
faint voices of men and women. For eight days we had 



No. 103] 



o 



re 



gon 



Trail 



269 



not encountered a human being, and this singular warning 
of their vicinity had an efi'ect extremely wild and impressive. 

About dark a sallow-faced fellow descended the hill on 
horseback, and splashing through the pool, rode up to the 
tents. He was enveloped in a huge cloak, and his broad 
felt-hat was weeping about his ears with the drizzling 
moisture of the evening. Another followed, a stout, square- 
built, intelligent-looking man, who announced himself as 
leader of an emigrant party, encamped a mile in advance 
of us. About twenty wagons, he said, were with him ; the 
rest of his party were on the other side of the Big Blue. . . . 

These were the first emigrants that we had overtaken, 
although we had found abundant and melancholy traces of 
their progress throughout the whole course of the journey. 
Sometimes we passed the grave of one who had sickened 
and died on the way. The earth was usually torn up, and 
covered thickly with wolf-tracks. Some had escaped this 
violation. One morning, a piece of plank, standing upright 
on the summit of a grassy hill, attracted our notice, and 
riding up to it, we found the following words very roughly 
traced upon it, apparently by a red-hot piece of iron : 

DIED MAY 7th, 1845. 
AGED TWO MONTHS. 



man com- 
pleted his 
task of de- 
scribing the 
French occu- 
pation of 
America, and 
the struggles 
with tiie Eng- 
lish. His ex- 
ploring trip 
to the Rocky 
Mountains 
gave him a 
singular in- 
sight into 
Indian char- 
acter. The 
piece is a re- 
markable bit 
of first-hand 
description 
by a master. 

— See 
Parkman's 
autobiogra- 
phy, in Con- 
temporaries, 
IV, No. 

— On Ore- 
gon, see 
above. No. 
80 ; Contem- 
poraries, III, 
ch. 

Big Blue, a 
tributary of 
the Kansas. 



Such tokens were of common occurrence. . . . 

We were late in breaking up our camp on the following 
morning, and scarcely had we ridden a mile when we saw, 
far in advance of us, drawn against the horizon, a line of 
objects stretching at regular intervals along the level edge of 
the prairie. An intervening swell soon hid them from sight, 
until, ascending it a quarter of an hour after, we saw close 
before us the emigrant caravan, with its heavy white wagons 



270 



Territorial 



[1846 



Overland 
emigration to 
Oregon 
began about 
1842. 



Three Eng- 
lish tourists 
who had 
joined Park- 
man and his 
friend. 



creeping on in their slow procession, and a large drove of 
cattle following behind. Half a dozen yellow-visaged Mis- 
sourians, mounted on horseback, were cursing and shouting 
among them ; their lank angular proportions, enveloped in 
brown homespun, evidently cut and adjusted by the hands 
of a domestic female tailor. As we approached, they 
greeted us with the polished salutation : ' How are ye, 
boys ? Are ye for Oregon or California ? ' 

As we pushed rapidly past the wagons, children's faces 
were thrust out from the white coverings to look at us ; 
while the care-worn, thin-featured matron, or the buxom 
girl, seated in front, suspended the knitting on which most 
of them were engaged to stare at us with wondering curi- 
osity. By the side of each wagon stalked the proprietor, 
urging on his patient oxen, who shouldered heavily along, 
inch by inch, on their interminable journey. It was easy to 
see that fear and dissension prevailed among them ; some of 
the men — but these, with one exception, were bachelors — 
looked wistfully upon us as we rode lightly and swifdy past, 
and then impatiently at their own lumbering wagons and 
heavy-gaited oxen. Others were unwilling to advance at 
all, until the party they had left behind should have re- 
joined them. Many were murmuring against the leader 
they had chosen, and wished to depose him ; and this dis- 
content was fomented by sontie ambitious spirits, who had 
hopes of succeeding in his place. The women were divided 
between regrets for the homes they had left and apprehen- 
sion of the deserts and the savages before them. 

We soon left them far behind, and fondly hoped that we 
had taken a final leave ; but unluckily our companions' 
wagon stuck so long in a deep muddy ditch, that before 
it was extricated the van of the emigrant caravan appeared 
again, descending a ridge close at hand. Wagon after 
wagon plunged through the mud ; and as it was nearly 
noon, and the place promised shade and water, we saw 



No. 104] 



Mexican War 



271 



with much gratification that they were resolved to encamp. 
Soon the wagons were wheeled into a circle ; the cattle 
were grazing over the meadow, and the men, with sour, sul- 
len faces, were looking about for wood and water. They 
seemed to meet with but indifferent success. As we left the 
ground, I saw a tall slouching fellow, with the nasal accent of 
' down east,' contemplating the contents of his tin cup, 
which he had just filled with water. 

* Look here, you,' said he ; ' it's chock full of animals ! ' 
The cup, as he held it out, exhibited in fact an extraor- 
dinary variety and profusion of animal and vegetable life. 

Francis Parkman, Jr., The California and Oregon Trail (New 
York, etc., 1849), To-Jt, passim. 



104. A Satire on the Mexican War (1846) 

THRASH away, you '11 hev to rattle 
On them kittle drums o' yourn, — 
'Taint a knowin' kind o' cattle 

Thet is ketched with mouldy corn ; 
Put in stiff, you fifer feller. 

Let folks see how spry you be, — 
Guess you '11 toot till you are yeller 
'Fore you git ahold o' me ! 

Thet air flag 's a leetle rotten, 

Hope it aint your Sunday's best; — 
Fact ! it takes a sight o' cotton 

To stuff out a soger's chest : 
Sence we farmers hev to pay fer 't, 

Ef you must wear humps hke these, 
Sposin' you should try salt hay fer 't. 

It would du ez sHck ez grease. 



By James 
Russell 
Lowell 
(1819-1891). 
Lowell's 
marriage in 
1844 to Maria 
White, an 
earnest abo- 
litionist, 
probably ac- 
centuated 
whatever 
leanings he 
may previ- 
ously have 
had toward 
anti-slavery. 
The Biglow 
Papers 
originally ap- 
peared in 
the Boston 
Courier dur- 
ing the years 
1846-1848. 
It is a 
series of 
poems writ- 
ten in the 



272 



Territorial 



[1846 



Yankee dia- 
lect by " Mr, 
Hosea Big- 
low," edited 
with an " in- 
troduction, 
notes, glos- 
sary, and 
copious 
index, by 
Homer Wil- 
bur, A.M." 
It was 
directed 
mainly 
against sla- 
very and the 
Mexican 
war, though 
it reflected 
incidentally 
on many 
other exist- 
ing abuses. 
Its influ- 
ence on the 
anti-slavery 
movement 
was incalcu- 
lably great. — ■ 
For Lowell, 
see below, 
No. 126; 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, No. 
. — On the 
Mexican 
war, see 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, ch. 



Northern 
anti-slavery 
men strongly 
opposed the 
annexation 
of Texas and 
the Mexican 



'T would n't suit them Southern fellers. 

They 're a dreffle graspin' set, 
We must oilers blow the bellers 

Wen they want their irons het ; 
May be it 's all right ez preachin', 

But my narves it kind o' grates, 
Wen I see the overreachin' 

O' them nigger-drivin' States. 

Them thet rule us, them slave-traders, 

Haint they cut a thunderin' swarth, 
(Helped by Yankee renegaders,) 

Thru the vartu o' the North ! 
We begin to think it 's nater 

To take sarse an' not be riled ; — 
Who 'd expect to see a tater 

All on eend at bein' biled ? 

Ez fer war, I call it murder, — 

There you hev it plain an' flat ; 
I don't want to go no furder 

Than my Testyment fer that ; 
God hez sed so plump an' fairly, 

It 's ez long ez it is broad, 
An' you 've gut to git up airly 

Ef you want to take in God. 

'Taint your eppyletts an' feathers 

Make the thing a grain more right ; 
'Taint afollerin' your bell-wethers 

Will excuse ye in His sight ; 
Ef you take a sword an' dror it. 

An' go stick a feller thru, 
Guv'ment aint to answer for it, 

God '11 send the bill to you. 



No. I04] Mexican ,War 273 

Wut 's the use o' meetin-goin' 

Every Sabbath, wet or dry, 
Ef it 's right to go amowin' 

Feller-men like oats an' rye ? 
I dunno but wut it 's pooty 

Trainin' round in bobtail coats,— 
But it 's curus Christian dooty 

This ere cuttin' folks's throats. 

They may talk o' Freedom's airy 

Tell they 're pupple in the face, — 
It 's a grand gret cemetary 

Fer the barthrights of our race ; 
They jest want this Californy See below, 

So 's to lug new slave-states in ^°' ^°^- 

To abuse ye, an' to scorn ye, 

An' to plunder ye like sin. 

Aint it cute to see a Yankee 

Take sech everlastin' pains. 
All to git the Devil's thankee, 

Helpin' on 'em weld their chains? 
Wy, it 's jest ez clear ez figgers. 

Clear ez one an' one make two, 
Chaps thet make black slaves o' niggers 

Want to make wite slaves o' you. 

Tell ye jest the eend I 've come to 

Arter cipherin' plaguy smart. 
An' it makes a handy sum, tu. 

Any gump could larn by heart ; 
Laborin' man an' laborin' woman 

Hev one glory an' one shame, 
Ev'y thin' thet 's done inhuman 

Injers all on 'em the same. 

T 



2 74 Territorial [1846 

'Taint by turnin' out to hack folks 

You 're agoin' to git your right, 
Nor by lookin' down on black folks 

Coz you 're put upon by wite ; 
Slavery aint o' nary color, 

'Taint the hide thet makes it wus, 
All it keers fer in a feller 

'S jest to make him fill its pus. 

Want to tackle 7ne in, du ye? 

I expect you '11 hev to wait ; 
Wen cold lead puts daylight thru ye 

You '11 begin to kal'late ; 
'Spose the crows wun't fall to pickin' 

All the carkiss from your bones, 
Coz you helped to give a lickin' 

To them poor half-Spanish drones ? 

Jest go home an' ask our Nancy 

Wether I 'd be sech a goose 
Ez to jine ye, — guess you 'd fancy 

The etarnal bung wuz loose ! 
She wants me fer home consumption, 

Let alone the hay 's to mow, — 
Ef you 're arter folks o' gumption. 

You 've a darned long row to hoe. 

Take them editors thet 's crowin' 

Like a cockerel three months old, — 
Don't ketch any on 'em goin'. 

Though they be so blasted bold ; 
Aint they a prime set o' fellers ? 

'Fore they think on 't they will sprout, 
(Like a peach thet 's got the yellers,) 

With the meanness bustin' out. 



Mexican War 



275 



Wal, go 'long to help 'em stealin' 

Bigger pens to cram with slaves, 
Help the men thet 's oilers dealin' 

Insults on your fathers' graves ; 
Help the strong to grind the feeble, 

Help the many agin the few, 
Help the men thet call your people 

Witewashed slaves an' peddlin' crew ! 

Massachusetts, God forgive her, 

She 's akneelin' with the rest. 
She, thet ough' to ha' clung fer ever 

In her grand old eagle-nest ; 
She thet ough' to stand so fearless 

Wile the wracks are round her hurled, 
Holdin' up a beacon peerless 

To the oppressed of all the world ! 



Haint they sold your colored seamen? 

Haint they made your env'ys wiz? 
Wtit '11 make ye act like freemen? 

Wui '11 git your dander riz? 
Come, I '11 tell ye wut I 'm thinkin' 

Is our dooty in this fix, 
They 'd ha' done 't ez quick ez winkin* 

In the days o' seventy-six. 



By "envoys " 
Lowell refers 
to Samuel 
Hoar's mis- 
sion to 
Charleston, 
1844, 



Clang the bells in every steeple. 

Call all true men to disown 
The tradoocers of our people. 

The enslavers o' their own ; 
Let our dear old Bay State proudly 

Put the trumpet to her mouth, 
Let her ring this messidge loudly 

In the ears of all the South : — 



276 



Territorial 



[1848 



Many of the 
New England 
abolitionists 
thought a 
division of 
the Union 
the only way 
to free the 
North from 
responsibility 
for slavery. 



" I '11 return ye good fer evil 

Much ez we frail mortils can, 
But I wun't go help the Devil 

Makin' man the cus o' man ; 
Call me coward, call me traiter, 

Jest ez suits your mean idees, — 
Here I stand a tyrant-hater, 

An' the friend o' God an' Peace ! " 

Ef I 'd my way I hed ruther 

We should go to work an' part, — 
They take one way, we take t'other, — 

Guess it would n't break my heart; 
Man hed ough' to put asunder 

Them thet God has noways jined ; 
An' I should n't gretly wonder 

Ef there 's thousands o' ray mind. 

[James Russell Lowell,] The Biglow Papers (Cambridge, 1848), 
3-1 1- 



By Rever- 
end Wal- 
ter COLTON 
(1797-1851), 
a clergyman 
who later 
took up jour- 
nalistic work. 
In 1830 he 
was ap- 
pointed a 
chaplain in 
the navy. 
In 1845 1^'s 
ship was or- 
dered to Cali- 
fornia, and 
Colton be- 
came alcalde 
of Monterey, 



105. At the Gold Fields (1848) 

. . . T T JY. met a coinpany of Californians about mid- 
V V day, on their return from the mines, and a 
more forlorn looking group never knocked at the gate of a 
pauper asyluitj. They were most of them dismounted, with 
rags fastened round their blistered feet, and with clubs in their 
hands, with which they were trying to force on their skeleton 
animals. They inquired for bread and meat : we had but 
little of either, but shared it with them. They took from 
one of their packs a large bag of gold, and began to shell out 
a pound or two in payment. We told them they were 
welcome ; still they seemed anxious to pay, and we were 



No. 105] 



Gold Fields 



277 



obliged to be positive in our refusal. This company, as I 
afterwards ascertained, had with them over a hundred thou- 
sand dollars in grain gold. . . . 

Sunday, Oct. i. Another Sabbath, and our first in the 
mines. But here and there a digger has resumed his work. 
With most it is a day of rest, not so much perhaps from re- 
ligious scruples, as a conviction that the system requires and 
must have repose. . . . 

Monday, Oct. 2. I went among the gold-diggers ; found 
half a dozen at the bottom of the ravine, tearing up the 
bogs, and up to their knees in mud. Beneath these bogs 
lay a bed of clay, sprinkled in spots with gold. These de- 
posits, and the earth mixed with them, were shovelled into 
bowls, taken to a pool near by, and washed out. The bowl, 
in working, is held in both hands, whirled violently back and 
forth through half a circle, and pitched this way and that 
sufficiently to throw off the earth and water, while the gold 
settles to the bottom. The process is extremely laborious, 
and taxes the entire muscles of the frame. In its effect 
it is more like swinging a scythe than any work I ever 
attempted. . . . 

There are about seventy persons at work in this ravine, 
and all within a few yards of each other. They average 
about one ounce per diem each. They who get less are dis- 
contented, and they who get more are not satisfied. Every 
day brings in some fresh report of richer discoveries in some 
quarter not far remote, and the diggers are consequently 
kept in a state of feverish excitement. One woman, a 
Sonoranian, who was washing here, finding at the bottom of 
her bowl only the amount of half a dollar or so, hurled it 
back again into the water, and straightening herself up to 
her full height, strode off with the indignant air of one who 
feels himself insulted. . . . 

Wednesday, Oct. 4. Our camping-ground is in a broad 
ravine through which a rivulet wanders, and which is dotted 



building tlie 
first school- 
house and 
establishing 
the first news- 
paper in Cali- 
fornia. In a 
letter to the 
North Amer- 
ican he made 
the first pub- 
lic announce- 
ment of the 
discovery of 
gold in that 
region. 
His is a most 
realistic ac- 
count of the 
conditions of 
life at the 
gold fields in 
the early 
days. — On 
California, 
see Contetn- 
poraries, IV, 
ch. 



A native of 
Sonora, a 
town about 
ninety miles 
southeast of 
Sacramento. 



278 



Territorial [1848 



with the frequent tents of gold-diggers. The sounds of the 
crowbar and pick, as they shake or shiver the rock, are 
echoed from a thousand chffs ... If you want to find 
men prepared to storm the burning threshold of the infernal 
prison, go among gold-diggers. 

The provisions with which we left San Jos^ are gone, and 
we have been obliged to supply ourselves here. We pay at 
the rate of four hundred dollars a barrel for flour; four 
dollars a pound for poor brown sugar, and four dollars a 
pound for indifferent coffee. And as for meat, there is none 
to be got except jerked-beef, which is the flesh of the bullock 
cut into strings and hung up in the sun to dry, and which 
has about as much juice in it as a strip of bark dangUng in 
the wind from a dead tree. Still, when moistened and 
toasted, it will do something towards sustaining life ; so also 
will the sole of your shoe. And yet I have seen men set 
and grind it as if it were nutritious and sweetly flavored. , . . 

Thursday, Oct. 5. The rivulet, which waters the ravine, 
collects here and there into deep pools. Over one of these 
a low limb had thrown itself, upon which I ventured out with 
an apparatus for scooping up the sand at the bottom. But 
just as I had lowered my dipper the limb broke, and down 
I went to the chin in water. It was some minutes before I 
could extricate myself, and when I did there was not a dry 
thread on my body. The chill of the stream reduced the 
gold fever in me very considerably. I had brought no out- 
ward garments but those in which I stood ; I wrung out the 
water and hung them up in the sun to dry, and wound my- 
self, like an Indian, in my blanket. But I was not more 
savage in my aspect than in my feelings. This, however, 
soon passed off, and I could laugh with others at the gold 
plunge. But nothing is a novelty here for more than a 
minute ; were a man to cast his skin or lose his head, no 
one would stop to inquire if he had recovered either, unless 
they suspected foul play, and then they would arraign and 



No. io6] Compromise of 1850 279 

execute the culprit before one of our lawyers could pen an 
indictment. 

Friday, Oct. 6. The most efficient gold-washer here is 
the cradle, which resembles in shape that appendage of the 
nursery, from which it takes its name. It is nine or ten feet 
long, open at one end and closed at the other. At the end 
which is closed, a sheet-iron pan, four inches deep, and six- 
teen over, and perforated in the bottom with holes, is let in 
even with the sides of the cradle. The earth is thrown into 
the pan, water turned on it, and the cradle, which is on an 
inchned plane, set in motion. The earth and water pass 
through the pan, and then down the cradle, while the gold, 
owing to its specific gravity, is caught by elects fastened 
across the bottom. Very little escapes ; it generally lodges 
before it reaches the last cleet. It requires four or five men 
to supply the earth and water to work such a machine to ad- 
vantage. The quantity of gold washed out must depend on 
the relative proportion of gold in the earth. The one 
worked in this ravine yields a hundred dollars a day ; but 
this is considered a slender result. Most of the diggers use 
the bowl or pan ; its hghtness never embarrasses their rov- 
ing habits ; and it can be put in motion wherever they may 
find a stream or spring. It can be purchased now in the 
mines for five or six dollars ; a few months since it cost an 
ounce — sixteen dollars for a wooden bowl! But I have 
seen twenty-four dollars paid for a box of seidlitz-powders, 
and forty dollars for as many drops of laudanum. 

Reverend Walter Cohen, Three Years m California (New York, 
etc., 1852), 271-281 passim. 



I 



106. Compromise of 1850 



By Senator 
Henry 
Clay (1777- 
1852). On 
BELIEVE that the crisis of the crisis has ar- January 29, 

rived ; and the fate of the measures which brought ^for- 
have been reported by the committee will, in my humble ward in the 



28o 



Territorial 



[1850 



Senate his 
" compre- 
hensive 
scheme of 
compro- 
mise," which 
included 
seven pro- 
visions ; 
April 18, 
1850, it was 
referred to a 
special com- 
mittee, of 
which Clay 
was made 
chairman. 
This com- 
mittee re- 
ported three 
bills, one of 
them being 
the cele- 
brated " Om- 
nibus Bill." 
This latter 
was de- 
feated ; but 
after an ardu- 
ous struggle 
the substance 
of Clay's pro- 
posal was 
embodied in 
successive 
single acts, 
which taken 
together are 
known as the 
" Compro- 
mise ot 1850." 
— On Clay, 
see American 
Or af ions, I, 
376 ; Contem- 
poraries, IV, 
No. .— 
On the Com- 
promise, see 
below, No. 
108 ; Ameri- 
can Orations, 
II, 123-218; 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, ch. 
; Ameri- 



judgment, determine the fate of the harmony or continued 
distraction of this country. . . . 

... I think, if the President had at this time to make a 
recommendation to Congress, with all the lights that have 
been shed upon the subject since the commencement of the 
present session of Congress, nearly five months ago, he 
would not limit himself to a recommendation merely for the 
admission of California, leaving the territories to shift for 
themselves as they could or might. He tells us in one of 
these messages . . . that he had reason to believe that one 
of these territories, at least New Mexico, might possibly 
form a State government for herself, and might come here 
with an application for admission during the progress of this 
session. But we have no evidence that such an event is 
about to happen ; and if it did, could New Mexico be ad- 
mitted as a State? . . . 

. . . the committee recommend the union of these 
three measures. ... a bill for the admission of California ; 
a bill establishing a territorial government in Utah ; a bill 
estabhshing a territorial government for New Mexico ; and, 
what is indispensable, if we give her a government, a bill 
providing what shall be her boundary, provided Texas shall 
accede to the liberal proposal made to her? Is there any- 
thing, I ask, incongruous in all this? Where is it? What 
is the incongruity? . . . 

. . . Amongst other limitations, it declares " that the ter- 
ritorial legislature shall have no power to pass any lay [law] 
in respect to African slavery." . . . My opinion is, that the 
law of Mexico, in all the variety of forms in which legislation 
can take place — that is to say, by the edict of a dictator, by 
the constitution of the people of Mexico, by the act of the 
legislative authority of Mexico — by all these modes of legis- 
lation, slavery has been abolished there. I am aware that 
some other Senators entertain a different opinion ; but . . . 
I feel authorized to say that the opinion of a vast majority 



No. io6] Compromise of 1850 281 



of the people of the United States, of a vast majority of the 
jurists of the United States, is in coincidence with that 
which I entertain ; that is to say, that at this moment, by 
law and in fact, there is no slavery there. . . . 

The next subject upon which the committee acted was 
that of fugitive slaves. The committee have proposed two 
amendments to be offered to the bill introduced by the 
Senator from Virginia, whenever that bill is taken up. The 
first of these amendments provides that the owner of a fugi- 
tive slave, when leaving his own State, and whenever it is 
practicable . . . shall carry with him a record from the 
State from which the fugitive has fled ; which record shall 
contain an adjudication of two facts, first, the fact of slavery, 
and secondly the fact of an elopement ; and, in the third 
place, such a general description of the slave as the court 
shall be enabled to give upon such testimony as shall be 
brought before it . . . 

. . . The other amendment provides, that when the owner 
of a slave shall arrest his property in a non-slave-holding 
State, and shall take him before the proper functionary to 
obtain a certificate to authorize the return of that property 
to the State from which he fled, if he [i.e. the fugitive] de- 
clares to that functionary at the time that he is a free man 
and not a slave, what does the provision require the officer 
to do? Why, to take a bond from the agent or owner, 
without surety, that he will carry the black person back to 
the county of the State from which he fled ; and that at the 
first court which may sit after his return, he [the alleged 
slave] shall be carried there, if he again assert the right to 
his freedom ; the court shall afford, and the owner shall 
afford to him all the facilities which are requisite to enable 
him to establish his right to freedom. . . . 



can History 
Studies, II, 

The Presi- 
dent was 
Zachary 
Taylor. 
Clay argues 
that, since 
New Mexico 
is free, the 
new terri- 
tories will be 
free. 

James M. 
Mason. 
I.e. a judicial 
statement. 



This was 
intended to 
meet the ob- 
jection that 
there was no 
trial by jury 
to ascertain 
whether a 
negro 

claimed was 
really a 
fugitive. 



Appendix to the Congressional Globe, 31 Cong., i sess. (Wash- 
ington, 1850), XXII, Part I, ^^67-^)^2 passim. 



By Richard 
Henry 
Dana, Jr. 
(1.315-1882), 
one of the 
early Free- 
Soilers and 
" Conscience 
Whigs," and 
an original 
Republican. 
He lent his 
professional 
skill to the 
anti-slavery 
Cause, later 
defending 
the fugitives 
Thomas 
Sims and 
Anthony 
Burns, and 
the rescuers 
of Shadrach, 
who escaped 
to Canada. 
The follow- 
ing extract 
from his 
diary tells the 
story of the 
rescue. 
Dana lost 
social pres- 
tige by thus 
taking up the 
cause of the 
slave. — For 
fugitives, see 
above, No. 
100 ; Contem- 
poraries, IV, 
ch. 



CHAPTER XVII — SLAVERY CONTEST, 

1851-1860 

107. The Rescue of Shadrach (1851) 

WHILE in my office at about 10.30 a.m. 
[Feb. 15, 185 1], Charles Davis, Parker, 
and others came in and told me that the marshal had a 
fugitive slave in custody, in the United States court room 
before Mr. George T. Curtis as commissioner. I went im- 
mediately over to the court-house. Mr. Curtis was on the 
bench, actually occupying the judge's seat ; Pat. Riley, the 
deputy marshal, with his two regular deputies and two con- 
stables, sworn in as special deputies, were in charge of the 
room ; a good-looking black fellow, sitting between the two 
subs, was tbfe arrested fugitive. The arrest had been so 
sudden and unexpected that few knew it, and it was half an 
hour before the crowd assembled, but it was increasing 
every minute, and there was great excitement. I went to 
the marshal's office and prepared a writ of de homine reple- 
giando and a petition for a habeas corpus addressed to Chief 
Justice Shaw. . . . With this petition I called on the Chief 
Justice, and stated to him that it was a case of an alleged 
fugitive slave, and that our object was to test the consti- 
tutional power of the commissioner to issue a warrant. The 
Chief Justice read the petition, and said in a most ungracious 
manner, " This won't do. I can't do anything on this," and 
laid it upon the table, and turned away to engage in soirje- 
thing else. (This interview was in the lobby of the supreme 
court room.) I asked him to be so good as to tell me what 
the defects were, saying that I had taken pains to conform 
282 



No. 



107] Rescue of Shadrach 283 



to the statute. He seemed unwilling to notice it, and de- 
sirous of getting rid of it ; in short, he attempted to bluff 
me off. ... I felt that all these objections were frivolous 
and invahd, but seeing the temper which the Chief Justice 
was in, and his evident determination to get rid of the peti- 
tion, I left him for the purpose of either procuring the evi- 
dence he required, or of going before another judge. On 
reaching the court-room, I found that the commissioner was 
just adjourning the court to Tuesday, at ten a.m. As this 
gave us an abundance of time, we determined to consult 
upon the matter in the afternoon, and no further proceedings 
were had on the subject of the habeas corpus. 

The prisoner remained in his seat, between two constables, 
and Pat. Riley was making the most absurd exhibition of 
pomposity in ordering people about, and clearing the court- 
room, and Mr. Curtis, dressed in a little brief authority, was 
swelling into the dignity of an arbiter of life and death, with 
a pomposity as ludicrous as that of Riley. At the order of 
the marshal all left the court-room quietly, except the officers 
and counsel, and when I left there were none else in the 
room, and the crowd in the entries and stairways and outside, 
though large and chiefly negroes, was perfectly peaceable. 

I returned to my office and was planning with a friend the 
probable next proceedings, when we heard a shout from the 
court-house, continued into a yell of triumph, and in an 
instant after down the steps came two huge negroes bearing 
the prisoner between them with his clothes half torn off, and 
so stupefied by the sudden rescue and the violence of his 
dragging off that he sat almost dumb, and I thought had 
fainted ; but the men seized him, and being powerful fellows 
hurried him through the square into Court Street, where he 
found the use of his feet, and they went off toward Cam- 
bridge, like a black squall, the crowd driving along with 
them and cheering as they went. It was all done in an in- 
stant, too quick to be believed, and so successful was it that 



Dana's office 
was at 30 
Court Street, 
opposite the 
Court 
House. 

De homine 
replegiando, 
a writ by 
which a per- 
son may be 
bailed out of 
the custody 
of another. 

Habeas 
corpus, a writ 
requiring the 
body of the 
person to be 
brought into 
court. 



Shadrach, 
alias 

Frederick 
Jenkins. 



284 



SI 



very 



Contest 



[1854 



I.e. the Fugi- 
tive-Slave 
Act of 1850. 



On the trial 
of Shad- 
rach's rescu- 
ers, the jury 
failed to 
agree, one of 
them being 
the man who 
had carried 
Shadrach 
across the 
line into 
Canada. 



not only was no negro arrested, but no attempt was made at 
pursuit. 

The sympathy of the masses was with the successful rescue, 
though here and there was an old hunker, or a young dandy, 
or would-be-chivalry-man, who expressed anger at the failure 
of the " Peace Measures." 

It seems that none of the officers were injured, except by 
being crowded into corners and held fast, and the sword of 
justice which Mr. Riley had displayed on his desk was carried 
off by an old negro. 

How can any right-minded man do else than rejoice at 
the rescue of a man from the hopeless, endless slavery to 
which a recovered fugitive is always doomed. If the law 
were constitutional, which I firmly beheve it is not, it would 
be the duty of a citizen not to resist it by force, unless he 
was prepared for revolution and civil war ; but we rejoice in 
the escape of a victim of an unjust law, as we would in the 
escape of an ill-treated captive deer or bird. 

The conduct of the Chief Justice, his evident disinclination 
to act, the frivolous nature of his objections, and his insult- 
ing manner to me, have troubled me more than any other 
manifestation. It shows how deeply seated, so as to affect, 
unconsciously I doubt not, good men like him, is this selfish 
hunkerism of the property interest on the slave question. 

Charles Francis Adams, Richard Henry Dana (Boston, etc., 
1890), I, iy()-i^-^ passim. 



By Thomas 
Hart 
Benton 
(1782- 1858), 
from a 
speech in 
the House of 
Representa- 
tives, April 
25, 1854- 



108. A Criticism of the Kansas-Nebraska 
Act (1854) 



T 



^HE bill, or bills before us, undertake to ac- 
complish their object without professing it — 
upon reasons which are contradictory and unfounded — in 



No. io8] 



Kansas-Nebraska 



285 



terms which are ambiguous and inconsistent — and by throw- 
ing on others the responsibihty of its own act. It professes 
not to interfere with the sovereign right of the people to 
legislate for themselves ; and the very first line of this solemn 
profession throws upon them a horse-load of law, which they 
have no right to reftise, or time to read, or money to pur- 
chase, or ability to understand. It throws upon them all 
the laws of the United States which are not locally inappli- 
cable ; and that comprehends all that are not specially made 
for other places : also, it gives them the Constitution of the 
United States, but without the privilege of voting at presi- 
dential or congressional elections, or of making their own 
judiciary. This is non-interference with a vengeance. . . . 
Sir, it is the crooked, insidious, and pusillanimous way of 
effecting the repeal of the Missouri compromise line. It in- 
cludes all law for the sake of leaving out one law; and effects 
a repeal by an omission, and legislates by an exception. It 
is a new way of repealing a law, and a bungling attempt to 
smuggle slavery into the Territory, and all the country out 
to the Canada line and up the Rocky Mountains. The 
crooked line of this smuggling process is this : " abolish the 
compromise line, and extend the Constitution over the 
country : the Constitution recognizes slavery : therefore, 
slavery is established as soon as the line is abolished, and 
the Constitution extended : and being put there by the 
Constitution, it cannot be legislated out." This is the Eng- 
lish of this smuggling process . . . 

And what is all this hotch-potch for? It is to establish a 
principle, they say — the principle of non-intervention — of 
squatter sovereignty. Sir, there is no such principle. The 
Territories are the children of the States. They are minors 
under twenty-one years of age ; and it is the business of the 
States, through their delegations in Congress, to take care of 
these minors until they are of age — until they are ripe for State 
government — then give them that government, and admit 



Benton had 
lost his seat 
in the Senate 
in 1850 be- 
cause not a 
thick-and- 
thin slavery 
man. 

Although a 
Southern 
man and a 
supporter of 
the candi- 
dacy of 
James 
Buchanan 
against his 
own son-in- 
law, John C. 
Fremont, 
Benton was a 
strong oppo- 
nent of the 
Kansas- 
Nebraska 
Bill. His 
speech on 
the measure 
was a most 
important 
one, by the 
effect on pub- 
lic opinion 
of the honest 
protest of a 
Southern 
man. Some 
of the more 
striking ex- 
pressions 
have been 
often quoted 
by contem- 
porary 
speakers, and 
later by 
standard his- 
torians.- — 
On Benton, 
see Co?item- 
poraries, III, 
No. . — On 
the Kansas- 
Nebraska 
Bill, see 
American 



286 Slavery Contest 



[1854 



History Leaf- 
lets, No. 17; 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, ch. 

American 
History 
Studies, II, 
No. 8. 

The bill as- 
serted that 
the Missouri 
Compromise 
(see above, 
No. 91) had 
been re- 
pealed by the 
Compromise 
of 1850 (see 
above, No. 
106). 



Northwest 
Ordinance 
of 1787. 

1820. 



1850. 
1850. 



1849. 



them to an equality with their fathers. That is the law, and 
the sense of the case ; and has been so acknowledged since 
the first ordinance in 1784, by all authorities, Federal and 
State, legislative, judicial, and executive. . . . 

I object to this shilly-shally, vvilly-won'ty, don'ty-can'ty 
style of legislation. It is not legislative. It is not parlia- 
mentary. It is not manly. It is not womanly. No woman 
would talk that way. No shilly-shally in a woman. Nothing 
of the female gender was ever born young enough, or lived 
long enough to get befogged in such a quandary as this. It 
is one thing or the other with them ; and what they say they 
stick to. No breaking bargains with them. . . . 

And now what is the excuse for all this disturbance of the 
country ; this breaking up of ancient compromises ; array- 
ing one half of the Union against the other, and destroying 
the temper and business of Congress? What is the excuse 
for all this turmoil and mischief? We are told it is to keep 
the question of slavery out of Congress ! To keep slavery 
out of Congress ! . . . It was out of Congress ! completely, 
entirely, and forever out of Congress, unless Congress 
dragged it in by breaking down the sacred laws which settled 
it. The question was settled, and done with. There was 
not an inch square of territory in the Union on which it 
could be raised without a breach of a compromise. The 
ordinance of '89 settled it in all the remaining part of the 
Northwest Territory beyond Wisconsin : the compromise 
line of 36° 30' settled it in all country north and west of 
Missouri to the British line, and up to the Rocky Mountains : 
the organic act of Oregon, made by the people, and sanc- 
tioned by Congress, settled it in all that region : the acts for 
the government of Utah and New Mexico settled it in those 
two Territories : the compact with Texas, determining the 
number of slave States to be formed out of that State, 
settled it there : and California settled it for herself. Now, 
where was there an inch square of territory within the United 



No. 



109] Election in Kansas 287 



States on which the question could be raised? Nowhere! 
Not an inch ! The question was settled everywhere, not 
merely by law, but by fact. The work was done, and there 
was no way to get at the question but by undoing the work ! 
No way for Congress to get the question in, for the purpose 
of keeping it out, but to break down compromises which 
kept it out. 

Appendix to the Congressional Globe, 33 Cong., i sess. (New 
Series, Washington, 1854), XXXI, 559-560 ^^j'j'zw. 



109. Troubles in Kansas (1855) 

I CAME into this Territory late in September, 1854, and 
have ever since resided in this town and district. I was 
here on the 30th of March, at the legislative election. 

On the day previous to the election a number of teams 
and wagons loaded with armed men, and men on horse- 
back, came into town. They were strangers here ; they 
came in from the south and south-west, and were preceded 
by two or three men, one of whom was subsequently called 
or passed as Colonel Samuel Young, of Missouri, who ap- 
peared to be the chief in command. I think " colonel " was 
his designation. They proceeded through the town, down 
on the bank of the river, and looked around for a time with 
the intention, as they stated, of encamping there that night. 
They had tents, and were armed ; I saw private arms, and I 
saw rifles and other arms of that kind, double-barrelled shot- 
guns, revolvers, and knives. I saw them encamped, and 
partaking of their provisions or refreshments ; but whether 
they brought them with them or not I do not know. The 
strangers continued to come in during the evening, and next 
morning there had been a very large addition made to their 
number. 



By Erastus 
D. Ladd, a 
candidate on 
the Free- 
State ticket in 
many of the 
disputed 
elections in 
Kansas. He 
later served 
his State in 
many public 
offices of 
trust. This 
piece is from 
his evidence 
before a con- 
gressional 
committee 
of investiga- 
tion, April 25, 
1856, and is 
valuable as a 
temperate 
account from 
an eye- 
witness of 
what actually 
took place on 
March 30, 
1855, memor- 
able as the 
date of the 
election 
which began 
the struggle 
between the 



288 Slavery Contest 



[1855 



anti-slavery 
and pro- 
slavery par- 
ties for the 
control of 
Kansas. — 
On Kansas, 
see American 
Orations, 

III, 88; Con- 
temporaries, 

IV, ch. 

The issue 
was the 
choice of a 
territorial 
legislature. 



I went to the place of voting in the morning, and was 
there at the opening of the polls, and remained all day, ex- 
cept time for dinner. A very large company came from the 
camp in the ravine to the place of voting and surrounded it. 
There was some difficulty in the organization of the board, 
and delay in commencing the voting. Mr. Abbott, one of 
the judges, resigned. A vote was offered, which I saw, and 
a question of the legality of the vote was raised and was 
discussed some time. During the discussion Colonel Young 
said he would setde the matter. He crowded up to the 
front, the place being thronged with people. The other 
vote was then withdrawn and he offered his vote. The 
question was raised as to the legality of his vote. He said 
he was ready to swear that he was a resident of the Terri- 
tory. He took such an oath, but refused the oath prescribed 
by the governor. But one of the judges appointed by the 
governor was then acting. His oath was received. He 
then mounted the window-sill and proclaimed to the crowd 
around that the matter was all settled and they could vote. 
I cannot repeat his exact words, but that was the senti- 
ment ; and they proceeded to vote. R. A. Cummins was 
appointed in the place of Abbott. At noon I went to their 
camp, and passed along the ravine from one extremity to 
the other, and counted the number of wagons and convey- 
ances of different kinds then on the ground and in sight. 
They had then commenced leaving. I counted very near 
one hundred conveyances, such as wagons and carriages. 
There were, besides, a large number of saddle horses. I es- 
timate that there were then on the ground about seven hun- 
dred of the party ; in the estimate I do not include those 
who had left for other places or for home. . . . 

... I heard a conversation a short distance from where 
I stood, and approached pretty nearly. I stepped up on a 
small rise of ground and saw quite a violent contest going 
on, of which Mr. Stearns of this place was the object. It 



No. 



109] Election in Kansas 289 



was a contest of words and threats but not of blows or force ; 
while it was going on, I heard some one cry out " There is 
the Lawrence bully." A rush was immediately made in an- 
other direction, towards Mr. Bond of this town, and a cry 
was raised to shoot him . . . He ran for the bank of the 
river, and the crowd followed him. During the running I 
think one or two shots were fired. When he got to the 
bank of the river, he sprang off out of sight. They rushed 
to the bank, and guns were pointed at him while below. 
But the cry was raised to let him go, and he was permitted 
to go on without being fired at. 

Another circumstance occurred in the latter part of the 
day. Mr. Willis, who was then a resident of this town, was 
on the ground, and a cry was raised that he was one of the 
men concerned in abducting a black woman about which 
there had been some difficulty in the town a short time 
previous. Several men raised the cry to hang him. Some 
were on horseback, and some were on foot. Movements 
were made towards him by strangers armed with rifles and 
smaller arms. The cry was repeated by a large number of 
persons to " hang him," " get a rope," &c. At the sugges- 
tion of some friends he left the ground. . . . 

In frequent conversations which I had with different per- 
sons of the party during the day, they claimed to have a 
legal right to vote in the Territory, and that they were resi- 
dents by virtue of their being then in the Territory. They 
said they were free to confess that they came from Missouri ; 
that they lived in Missouri, and voted as Missourians. Some 
claimed that they had been in the Territory and made claims, 
and therefore had a right to vote. But they did not claim 
to be residents in the Territory, except that they had a resi- 
dence here from being at that moment in the Territory. 

House of Representatives, Report of the Special Coj/imittee ap- 
pointed to investigate the Troubles in Kansas (Report No. 
200, Washington, 1856), \\a,-\\6 passim. 



290 slavery Contest 



H856 



By Jl'STlCE 
lOHN 
1\ I CLEAN 

of e)hio 
(1785-1861). 
appointed 
associate jus- 
tice of the 
Supreme 
Court by 
Andrew 
Jackson. 
His most 
celebrated 
opinion, 
from which 
selections are 
given below, 
is that in 
whicli he 
dissents from 
Chief Justice 
Taney's de- 
cision on the 
Dred Scott 
case. The 
issue was the 
question of 
the freedom 
of a slave, 
Dred Scott, 
taken by his 
master into 
Illinois and 
the Louisi- 
ana cession 
above 36'-^ 30' 
(after 1820), 
and then 
taken back to 
Missouri. 
The court 
held that 
Scott could 
not sue be- 
fore it, be- 
cause a 
negro could 
not be a citi- 
zen ; and 
also that the 
Missouri 
Compro- 
mise was no 



I 10. The Dred Scott Decision (1856) 

IF the great and fundamental principles of our Government 
are never to be settled, there can be no lasting pros- 
perity. The Constitution will become a floating waif on the 
billows of popular excitement. 

The prohibition of slavery north of thirty-six degrees thirty 
minutes, and of the State of Missouri, contained in the act 
admitting that State into the Union, was passed by a vote of 
134, in the House of Representatives, to 42. Before Mr. 
Monroe signed the act, it was submitted by him to his Cab- 
inet, and they held the restriction of slavery in a Territory 
to be within the constitutional powers of Congress. It would 
be singular, if in 1S04 Congress had power to prohibit the 
introduction of slaves in Orleans Territory from any other 
part of the Union, under the penalty of freedom to the slave, 
if the same power, embodied in the Missouri compromise, 
could not be exercised in 1S20. 

But this law of Congress, which prohibits slavery north of 
Missouri and of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, is declared 
to have been null and void by my brethren. And this opinion 
is founded mainly, as I understand, on the distinction drawn 
between the ordinance of 1 787 and the Missouri compromise 
line. In what does the distinction consist? The ordinance, 
it is said, was a compact entered into by the confederated 
States before the adoption of the Constitution ; and that in 
the cession of territory authority was given to estabHsh a 
Territorial Government. . . . 

It is said the Territories are common property of the States, 
and that every man has a right to go there with his property. 
This is not controverted. But the court say a slave is not 
property beyond the operation of the local law which makes 
him such. Never was a truth more authoritatively and justly 
uttered by man. Suppose a master of a slave in a British 



No. Ill] 



Dred Scott 



291 



island owned a million of property in England ; would that 
authorize him to take his slaves with him to England ? The 
Constitution, in express terms, recognises the status of slavery 
as founded on the municipal law : " No person held to 
service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping 
into another, shall," &c. Now, unless the fugitive escape 
from a place where, by the municipal law, he is held to labor, 
this provision affords no remedy to the master. What can 
be more conclusive than this ? Suppose a slave escape from 
a Territory where slavery is not authorized by law, can he 
be reclaimed? 

In this case, a majority of the court have said that a slave 
may be taken by his master into a Territory of the United 
States, the same as a horse, or any other kind of property. 
It is true, this was said by the court, as also many other 
things, which are of no authority. Nothing that has been 
said by them, which has not a direct bearing on the jurisdic- 
tion of the court, against which they decided, can be con- 
jidered as authority. I shall certainly not regard it as such. 
The question of jurisdiction, being before the court, was 
decided by them authoritatively, but nothing beyond that 
question. A slave is not a mere chattel. He bears the im- 
press of his Maker, and is amenable to the laws of God and 
man ; and he is destined to an endless existence. 

Benjamin C Howard, Report of the Decision of the Suprefne Court 
of the United States . . . (Washington, 1857), 1^2-1^6 passim. 



bar, because 
it had always 
been uncon- 
stitutional. — 
On the Dred 
Scott case, 
see American 
History Leaf- 
lets. No. 23; 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, No. 



III. A Criticism of Lincoln (1858) 



L' 



INCOLN now takes his stand and proclaims 
his Abolition doctrines. Let me read a part 
of them. In his speech at Springfield to the Convention, 
which nominated him for the Senate, he said : 



By Senator 
Stephen 
A. Douglas 
(1813-1861). 
Douglas is 
one of the 
most interest- 
ing men in 



292 slavery Contest 



[1858 



the history of 
this period : 
a notable de- 
bater, a 
popular 
leader, 
strong, bold, 
and coarse, 
he made him- 
self feared 
and hated ; 
and he had a 
wonderful 
gift of ex- 
plaining 
away his own 
record. The 
author of the 
Kansas- 
Nebraska 
Bill (above, 
No. 108), he 
was greatly 
incensed at 
the coming- 
in of a Free- 
Soil majority 
in Kansas 
(above, No. 
109) ; and 
the Dred 
Scott deci- 
sion (above, 
No. no) 
destroyed 
his popular- 
sovereignty 
doctrine by 
denying the 
power of any- 
body to pro- 
hibit slavery 
except in a 
State. In 
1858, Doug- 
las broke 
with Bu- 
chanan on 
the question 
of forcing the 
slave Le- 
compton 
constitution 
on Kansas. 
The Repub- 
licans tried 



" In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have 
been reached and passed. ' A house divided against itself 
cannot stand.' I believe this government cantiot endure 
permanently half Slave and half Free. I do not expect the 
Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — 
but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become 
all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of 
slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it 
where the public mind shall rest in the beUef that it is in 
the course of ultimate extinction : or its advocates will push 
it forward till it shall becof?ie alike lawful ifi all the States — 
old as well as new, North as well as South," [Cries of 
"good," "good," and cheers.] 

I am delighted to hear you Black Republicans say "good." 
I have no doubt that doctrine expresses your sentiments, and 
I will prove to you now, if you will listen to me, that it is 
revolutionary and destructive of the existence of this Gov- 
ernment. Mr. Lincoln, in the extract from which I have 
read, says that this Government cannot endure permanently 
in the same condition in which it was made by its framers 
— divided into free and slave States. He says that it has 
existed for about seventy years thus divided, and yet he tells 
you that it cannot endure permanently on the same princi- 
ples and in the same relative condition in which our fathers 
made it. Why can it not exist divided into free and slave 
States? Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Hamil- 
ton, Jay, and the great men of that day, made this Govern- 
ment divided into free States and slave States, and left each 
State perfectly free to do as it pleased on the subject of 
slavery. Why can it not exist on the same principles on 
which our fathers made it? They knew when they framed 
the Constitution that in a country as wide and broad as this, 
with such a variety of climate, production and interest, the 
people necessarily required different laws and institutions in 
different localities. They knew that the laws and regulations 



No. Ill] Lincoln Criticized 293 



which would suit the granite hills of New Hampshire would 
be unsuited to the rice plantations of South Carolina, and 
they, therefore, provided that each State should retain its 
own Legislature and its own sovereignty, with the full and 
complete power to do as it pleased within its own hmits, in 
all that was local and not national. One of the reserved 
rights of the States, was the right to regulate the relations 
between Master and Servant, on the slavery question. At 
the time the Constitution was framed, there were thirteen 
States in the Union, twelve of which were slaveholding States 
and one a free State. Suppose this doctrine of uniformity 
preached by Mr. Lincoln, that the States should all be free 
or all be slave had prevailed, and what would have been the 
result ? Of course, the twelve slaveholding States would have 
overruled the one free State, and slavery would have been 
fastened by a Constitutional provision on every inch of the 
American Republic, instead of being left as our fathers wisely 
left it, to each State to decide for itself. Here I assert that 
uniformity in the local laws and institutions of the different 
States is neither possible or desirable. If uniformity had 
been adopted when the Government was established, it must 
inevitably have been the uniformity of slavery everywhere, 
or else the uniformity of negro citizenship and negro equality 
everywhere. 

We are told by Lincoln that he is utterly opposed to the 
Dred Scott decision, and will not submit to it, for the reason 
that he says it deprives the negro of the rights and privileges 
of citizenship. That is the first and main reason which he 
assigns for his warfare on the Supreme Court of the United 
States and its decision. I ask you, are you in favor of con- 
ferring upon the negro the rights and privileges of citizen- 
ship ? Do you desire to strike out of our State Constitution 
that clause which keeps slaves and free negroes out of the 
State, and allow the free negroes to flow in, and cover your 
prairies with black settlements? Do you desire to turn this 



to prevent his 
reelection to 
the Senate by 
putting for- 
ward Abra- 
ham Lincoln 
as their can- 
didate in 
1858; and 
this rivalry 
led to the 
famous joint 
debate be- 
tween these 
two men, 
from which 
this speech is 
an extract. — 
On Douglas, 
see American 
Orations, 
111,50,345. 
— On the 
joint debate, 
see Contem- 
poraries, III, 
Nos. 



294 Slavery Contest 



[1859 



beautiful State into a free negro colony, in order that when 
Missouri abolishes slavery she can send one hundred thou- 
sand emancipated slaves into Illinois, to become citizens and 
voters, on an equality with yourselves ? If you desire negro 
citizenship, if you desire to allow them to come into the 
State and settle with the white man, if you desire them to 
vote on an equality with yourselves, and to make them eligible 
to office, to serve on juries, and to adjudge your rights, then 
support Mr. Lincoln and the Black Republican party, who 
are in favor of the citizenship of the negro. For one, I am 
opposed to negro citizenship in any and every form. I be- 
lieve this Government was made on the white basis. I believe 
it was made by white men, for the benefit of white men and 
their posterity for ever, and I am in favor of confining citi- 
zenship to white men, men of European birth and descent, 
instead of conferring it upon negroes, Indians, and other 
inferior races. 

Political Debates between Hon. Abraham Liticoln and Hon. 
Stephen A. Doitglas, in . . . iSjS (Columbus, i860), 70-71. 



By Captain 
John 
Brown 
" of Osawato- 
mie" (1800- 
1859). He 
was very 
early identi- 
fied with anti- 
slavery enter- 
prises, hav- 
ing formed 
in 1850 
the " League 
of Gilead- 
ites," pledged 
to the rescue 
of fugitives. 
He took a 
leading part 



112. John Brown's Last Speech (1859) 

I HAVE, may it please the Court, a few words to say. 
In the first place, I deny every thing but what I have 
all along admitted — the design on my part to free the 
slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clear thing of 
that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri, 
and there took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either 
side, moved them through the country, and finally left them 
in Canada. I designed to have done the same thing again, 
on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did 
intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or 
to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection. 



No. 112] 



John Brown 



295 



I have another objection : and that is, it is unjust that I 
should suffer such a penalty. Had I interfered in the man- 
ner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved 
— (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater 
portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case) — 
had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the 
intelhgent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their 
friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or chil- 
dren, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what 
I have in this interference, it would have been all right, and 
every man in this Court would have deemed it an act worthy 
of reward rather than punishment. 

This Court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the 
Law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to 
be the Bible, or, at least, the New Testament. That teaches 
me that all things " whatsoever I would that men should do 
unto me I should do even so to them." It teaches me further, 
to " remember them that are in bonds as bound with them." 
I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet 
too young to understand that God is any respecter of per- 
sons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as 
I have always freely admitted I have done, in behalf of 
His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is 
deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the further- 
ance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with 
the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in 
this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, 
cruel, and unjust enactments — I submit : so let it be done. 

Let me say one word further, 

I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received 
on my trial. Considering all the circumstances, it has been 
more generous than 1 expected. But I feel no conscious- 
ness of guilt. I have stated from the first what was my 
intention and what was not. I never had any design against 
the life of any person, nor any disposition to commit treason, 



in the strug- 
gles in Kan- 
sas (see 
above, No. 
109), and his 
efforts culmi- 
nated in the 
seizure of the 
United States 
arsenal at 
Harper's 
Ferry, Octo- 
ber 16, 1859. 
He was cap- 
tured, tried, 
and exe- 
cuted. This 
speech was 
made at the 
close of the 
trial, Novem- 
ber I, 1859, in 
answer to the 
customary 
question of 
the judge to 
the prisoner 
as to whether 
he had any- 
thing to say 
why sentence 
of death 
should not be 
passed upon 
him. It gives 
the best in- 
sight that we 
have into the 
motives of 
this strange, 
noble- 
minded man, 
half fanatic, 
half martyred 
hero. — On 
John Brown, 
see Conie?n- 
poraries, IV, 
No. 



296 slavery Contest 



[1861 



or excite slaves to rebel, or make any general insurrection. 
I never encouraged any man to do so, but always discour- 
aged any idea of that kind. 

Let me say, also, a word in regard to the statements made 
by some of those connected with me. I hear it has been 
stated by some of them that I have induced them to join 
me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure 
them, but as regretting their weakness. There is not one 
of them but joined me of his own accord, and the greater 
part at their own expense. A number of them I never saw, 
and never had a word of conversation with, till the day they 
came to me, and that was for the purpose I have stated. 

Now I have done. 

James Redpath, The Public Life of Capt. John Brown (Boston, 
i860), 340-342. 



By Alex- 
ander 
Hamilton 
Stephens 
(1812-1883), 
vice-presi- 
dent of the 
Confederacy. 
Stephens was 
extremely 
slow in 
adopting the 
doctrine of 
States' 
rights; in 
1850 he op- 
posed the 
secession 
movement in 
the South ; 
and in i860 
he supported 
Stephen A. 
Douglas (see 
above, No. 
Ill) as presi- 
dential can- 



113. Slavery the Corner-Stone of the 
Confederacy (1861) 



T 



HE new constitution has put at xq%\., forever, 
all the agitating questions relating to our 
peculiar institution — African slavery as' it exists amongst us 
— the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. 
This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present 
revolution. Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as 
the "rock upon -which the old Union would split." He was 
right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized 
fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth 
upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. 
The prevaiUng ideas entertained by him and most of the 
leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old 
constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was 
in violation of the laws of nature ; that it was wrong m prin- 



No. 113] 



Corner-Stone 



297 



ciple, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they 
knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of 
the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the 
order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent 
and pass away. . . . Those ideas, however, were funda- 
mentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the 
equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foun- 
dation, and the government built upon it fell when the 
" storm came and the wind blew." 

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite 
idea ; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon 
the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man ; 
that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his 
natural and normal condition. 

This, our new government, is the first, in the history of 
the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and 
moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its 
development, like all other truths in the various departments 
of science. It has been so even amongst us. Many who 
hear me, perhaps, can recollect well, that this truth was not 
generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of 
the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty 
years ago. Those at the North, who still cling to these 
errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate 
fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of the 
mind — from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of in- 
sanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, 
in many instances, is forming correct conclusions from fan- 
cied or erroneous premises ; so vvith the anti-slavery fanatics ; 
their conclusions are right if their premises were. They 
assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he 
is entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man. 
If their premises were correct, their conclusions would be 
logical and just — but their premise being wrong, their whole 
argument fails. . . . 



didate 

against John 
C. Breclcin- 
ridge, the 
professed ex- 
ponent of 
States' rights. 
In the speech 
of March 21, 
1861, quoted 
below, he 
lays down a 
doctrine con- 
cerning sla- 
very fully as 
advanced as 
that of 
McDuffie 
(see above, 
No. 95).— 
On Stephens, 
see Ameri- 
can Orations, 
IV, 39, 428 ; 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, No. 
. — On se- 
cession, see 
American 
Orations, 

III, Part VI; 

IV, Part VI I; 
America?i 
History Leaf' 
lets. No. 12 ; 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, ch. 



298 slavery Contest 



[1861 



Toward the 
end of the 
Civil War 
the South 
began to 
raise negro 
soldiers. 



. . . May we not, therefore, look with confidence to 
the ultimate universal ackowledgment of the truths upon 
which our system rests? It is the first government ever 
instituted upon the principles in strict conformity to nature, 
and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials 
of human society. Many governments have been founded 
upon the principle of the subordination and serfdom of cer- 
tain classes of the same race ; such were and are in violation 
of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such viola- 
tion of nature's laws. With us, all of the white race, how- 
ever high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the 
law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. 
He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for 
that condition which he occupies in our system. The archi- 
tect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation 
with the proper material — the granite ; then comes the brick 
or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of 
the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we 
know that it is best, not only for the superior, but for the 
inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in con- 
formity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not for us 
to inquire into the wisdom of his ordinances, or to question 
them. For his own purposes, he has made one race to 
differ from another, as he has made " one star to diff'er from 
another star in glory." 

The great objects of humanity are best attained when 
there is conformity to his laws and decrees, in the formation 
of governments as well as in all things else. Our confed- 
eracy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with 
these laws. This stone which was rejected by the first build- 
ers "is become the chief of the corner" — the real "corner- 
stone" — in our new edifice. [Applause.] 

I have been asked, what of the future? It has been 
apprehended by some that we would have arrayed against 
us the civilized world. I care not who or how many they 



No. 114] 



Fort Sumter 



299 



may be against us, when we stand upon the eternal principles 
of truth, if we are true to otirselves and the principles for 
which we contend, we are obliged to, and must triumph. 
[Immense applause.] 

Henry Cleveland, Alexander H. Stephens, in Public and Private 
(Philadelphia, [1867]), 721-723 ^ajj/w. 



114. Attack on Fort Sumter (1861) 

As soon as the outline of our fort could be distinguished, 
the enemy carried out their programme. It had 
been arranged, as a special comphment to the venerable 
Edmund Rufifin, who might almost be called the father of 
secession, that he should fire the first shot against us. . . . 
Almost immediately afterward a ball from Cummings Point 
lodged in the magazine wall, and by the sound seemed to 
bury itself in the masonry about a foot from my head, in 
very unpleasant proximity to my right ear. This is the one 
that probably came with Mr. Ruffin's comphments. In a 
moment the firing burst forth in one continuous roar, and 
large patches of both the exterior and interior masonry be- 
gan to crumble and fall in all directions. The place where 
I was had been used for the manufacture of cartridges, and 
there was still a good deal of powder there, some packed 
and some loose. A shell soon struck near the ventilator, 
and a puff of dense smoke entered the room, giving me a 
strong impression that there would be an immediate explosion. 
Fortunately, no sparks had penetrated inside. 

Nineteen batteries were now hammering at us, and the 
balls and shells from the ten-inch columbiads, accompanied 

* Copyright, 1875. 



By Abner 
Double- 
day,* then a 
captain, later 
a general in 
the service 
of the United 
States. 
Doubleday 
was in Fort 
Sumter from 
the transfer 
from Fort 
Mouhrie 
(December 
26, i860) to 
the surrender 
(April 13, 
1861). The 
issue which 
led to the at- 
tack was the 
secession of 
South Caro- 
lina, which 
had ceded to 
the United 
States the 
ground on 
which Sum- 
ter stood, but 
now claimed 
that the ces- 
sion had 
ceased to 
have force. 
This was 
almost the 



300 



SL 



Lvery 



Contest 



[1861 



only fort 
within the 
Confederate 
States still 
held by gov- 
ernment 
troops, and 
Lincoln re- 
fused to give 
it up, and at- 
tempted to 
reinforce it. 
Hence the 
first shot 
upon it was 
accepted as 
the begin- 
ning of civil 
war. — For 
the contro- 
versy over 
Sumter, see 
Nicolay and 
Hay, Abra- 
ham Lincoln, 
HI, ch. xxiii- 
IV, ch. iii; 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, ch. 



These bat- 
teries had 
been con- 
structed 
under the 
guns of Sum- 
ter, as An- 
derson had 
no orders 
from either 
Buchanan or 
Lincoln to 
prevent 
them. 



by shells from the thirteen-inch mortars which constantly 
bombarded us, made us feel as if the war had com.menced 
in earnest. . . . 

... As I was the ranking officer, I took the first detach- 
ment, and marched them to the casemates, which looked out 
upon the powerful iron-clad battery of Cummings Point. 

In aiming the first gun fired against the rebellion I had no 
feeling of self-reproach, for I fully believed that the contest 
was inevitable, and was not of our seeking. The United 
States was called upon not only to defend its sovereignty, 
but its right to exist as a nation. The only alternative was 
to submit to a powerful oligarchy who were determined to 
make freedom forever subordinate to slavery. To me it was 
simply a contest, politically speaking, as to whether virtue or 
vice should rule. 

My first shot bounded off" from the sloping roof of the 
battery opposite without producing any apparent effect. It 
seemed useless to attempt to silence the guns there ; for 
our metal was not heavy enough to batter the work down, 
and every ball glanced harmlessly off", except one, which 
appeared to enter an embrasure and twist the iron shutter, 
so as to stop the firing of that particular gun. . . . 

Our firing now became regular, and was answered from 
the rebel guns which encircled us on the four sides of the 
pentagon upon which the fort was built. The other side 
faced the open sea. Showers of balls from ten-inch colum- 
biads and forty-two-pounders, and shells from thirteen-inch 
mortars poured into the fort in one incessant stream, caus- 
ing great flakes of masonry to fall in all directions. When 
the immense mortar shells, after sailing high in the air, came 
down in a vertical direction, and buried themselves in the 
parade-ground, their explosion shook the fort like an earth- 
quake. . . . 

After three hours' firing, my men became exhausted, and 
Captain Seymour came, with a fresh detachment, to reheve 



No. 114] 



Fort Sumter 



301 



us. He has a great deal of humor in his composition, and 
said, jocosely, " Doubleday, what in the world is the matter 
here, and what is all this uproar about?" 

I replied, " There is a trifling difference of opinion be- 
tween us and our neighbors opposite, and we are trying to 
settle it." 

" Very well," he said ; "do you wish me to take a hand? " 
I said, " Yes, I would hke to have you go in." 
"All right," he said. "What is your elevation, and 
range ? " 

I replied, " Five degrees, and twelve hundred yards." 
" Well," he said, " here goes ! " And he went to work 
with a will. 

Part of the fleet was visible outside the bar about half- 
past ten A.M. It exchanged salutes with us, but did not 
attempt to enter the harbor, or take part in the battle. In 
fact, it would have had considerable difficulty in finding the 
channel, as the marks and buoys had all been taken up. . . . 
On the morning of the 13th, we took our breakfast — or, 
rather, our pork and water — at the usual hour, and marched 
the men to the guns when the meal was over. 

From 4 to 6^ a.m. the enemy's fire was very spirited. 
From 7 to 8 a.m. a rain-storm came on, and there was a lull 
in the cannonading. About 8 a.m. the officers' quarters 
were ignited by one of Ripley's incendiary shells, or by shot 
heated in the furnaces at Fort Moultrie. The fire was put 
out; but at 10 a.m. a mortar shell passed through the roof, 
and lodged in the flooring of the second story, where it 
burst, and started the flames afresh. This, too, was ex- 
tinguished ; but the hot shot soon followed each other so 
rapidly that it was impossible for us to contend with them 
any longer. It became evident that the entire block, being 
built with wooden partitions, floors, and roofing, must be 
consumed, and that the magazine, containing three hundred 
barrels of powder, would be endangered ; for, even after 



This fleet 
had been 
dispatched 
by Lincoln 
with pro- 
visions for 
the fort, 
but was de- 
layed and 
could render 
no aid. 



Roswell S. 
Ripley, for- 
merly an offi- 
cer in the 
Northern 
army, but 
now serving 
with the Con- 
federates. 



30 2 slavery Contest 



[1861 



The flag was 
raised again, 
but the fort 
was shortly 
obliged to 
surrender. 



closing the metallic door, sparks might penetrate through 
the ventilator. The floor was covered with loose powder, 
where a detail of men had been at work manufacturing 
cartridge-bags out of old shirts, woolen blankets, etc. . . . 

By II A.M. the conflagration was terrible and disastrous. 
One-fifth of the fort was on fire, and the wind drove the 
smoke in dense masses into the angle where we had all taken 
refuge. It seemed impossible to escape suffocation. Some 
lay down close to the ground, with handkerchiefs over their 
mouths, and others posted themselves near the embrasures, 
where the smoke was somewhat lessened by the draught of 
air. . . . 

The scene at this time was really terrific. The roaring 
and crackling of the flames, the dense masses of whirling 
smoke, the bursting of the enemy's shells, and our own 
which were exploding in the burning rooms, the crashing of 
the shot, and the sound of masonry falling in every direction, 
made the fort a pandemonium. When at last nothing was 
left of the building but the blackened walls and smoldering 
embers, it became painfully evident that an immense amount 
of damage had been done. There was a tower at each 
angle of the fort. One of these, containing great quantities 
of shells, upon which we had relied, was almost completely 
shattered by successive explosions. The massive wooden 
gates, studded with iron nails, were burned, and the wall 
built behind them was now a mere heap of debris, so that 
the main entrance was wide open for an assaulting party. 
The sally-ports were in a similar condition, and the numerous 
windows on the gorge side, which had been planked up, had 
now become all open entrances. 

About 12.48 P.M. the end of the flag-staff was shot down, 
and the flag fell. . . . 



From Doubleday's Reminiscences of Fort Sumter 
Moultrie^ Copyright, 1875, by Harper & Brothers. 



and Fort 



CHAPTER XVIII — CIVIL WAR 

1861-1865 

115. The Rousing of the North (1861) 

ON Sunday, April 14 [1861], the fact became known 
that Fort Sumter had surrendered. The excitement 
created by the bombardment of that fortress and its mag- 
nificent defence by Anderson was prodigious. The outrage 
on the Government of the United States thus perpetrated by 
the authorities of South Carohna sealed the fate of the new- 
born Confederacy and the institution of slavery. Intelligent 
Southerners at the North were well aware of the conse- 
quences which must follow. In the city of New York a 
number of prominent gentlemen devoted to the interests of 
the South, and desirous to obtain a bloodless dissolution of 
the Union, were seated together in anxious conference, 
studying with intense solicitude the means of preserving the 
peace. A messenger entered the room in breathless haste 
with the news : " General Beauregard has opened fire on 
Fort Sumter ! " The persons whom he thus addressed re- 
mained a while in dead silence, looking into each other's 
pale faces ; then one of them, with uplifted hands, cried, in 
a voice of anguish, " My God, we are ruined ! " 

The North rose as one man. The question had been 
asked by those who were watching events, " How will New 
York go?" There were sinister hopes in certain quarters of 
a strong sympathy with the secession movements ; dreams 
that New York might decide on cutting off from the rest of 
the country and becoming a free-city. These hopes and 

* Copyright, 1883. 

303 



By Rever- 
end Mor- 
gan Dix* 
(1827- ), 
rector of 
Trinity 
Church, New 
York City, 
from his 
memoirs of 
his father, 
John Adams 
Dix, pub- 
lished in 
1883. This 
piece is a 
most graphic 
picture by an 
eye-witness 
of the state 
of things in 
our largest 
city at the 
moment of 
the outbreak 
of the Re- 
bellion, and 
is also a 
lemarkable 
piece of up- 
lifting de- 
scription. — 
On the out- 
break of war, 
see Ameri- 
can Orations, 
IV, 3-81.- 
On the Civil 
War in gen- 
eral, Ameri- 
can Orations, 
IV, PartVII; 
American 
History Leaf- 



304 



Civil War 



[1861 



lets, Nos. 18, 
26 ; Ameri- 
can History 
Studies, No. 
9 ; Contem- 
poraries, IV, 
Part . 

For the at- 
tack on Sum- 
ter, see 
above, No. 
114. 



dreams vanished in a day. The reply to the question how 
New York would go was given with an energy worthy of 
herself. 

The 15 th of that month brought President Lincoln's proc- 
lamation and the call for 75,000 men — a bagatelle, as it 
proved, compared with the number required ; but the figures 
seemed enormous to the popular eye, and the demand set 
the whole city in a blaze. Never to my dying day shall I 
forget a scene witnessed on Thursday of that week. A regi- 
ment had arrived from Massachusetts on the way to Wash- 
ington, via Baltimore. They came in at night ; and it was 
understood that, after breakfasting at the Astor House, the 
march would be resumed. By nine o'clock in the morning 
an immense crowd had assembled about the hotel : Broad- 
way, from Barclay to Fulton Street, and the lower end of 
Park Row, were occupied by a dense mass of human beings, 
all watching the front entrance, at which the regiment was 
to file out. From side to side, from wall to wall, extended 
that innumerable host, silent as the grave, expectant, some- 
thing unspeakable in the faces. It was the dead, deep hush 
before the thunder-storm. At last a low murmur was heard ; 
it sounded somewhat like a gasp of men in suspense ; and 
the cause was, that the soldiers had appeared, their leading 
files descending the steps. By the twinkle of their bayonets 
above the heads of the crowd their course could be traced 
out into the open street in front. Formed, at last, in 
column, they stood, the band at the head ; and the word 
was given, " March ! " Still dead silence prevailed. Then 
the drums rolled out the time — the regiment was in motion. 
And then the band, bursting into full volume, struck up — 
what other tune could the Massachusetts men have chosen ? 
— "Yankee Doodle." I caught about two bars and a half 
of the old music, not more. For instantly there arose a 
sound such as many a man never heard in all his life and 
never will hear ; such as is never heard more than once in 



No. ii6] 



North Aroused 



305 



a lifetime. Not more awful is the thunder of heaven as, 
with sudden peal, it smites into silence all lesser sounds, 
and, rolling through the vault above us, fills earth and sky 
with the shock of its terrible voice. One terrific roar burst 
from the multitude, leaving nothing audible save its own 
reverberation. We saw the heads of armed men, the gleam 
of their weapons, the regimental colors, all moving on, 
pageant-like ; but naught could we hear save that hoarse, 
heavy surge — one general acclaim, one wild shout of joy 
and hope, one endless cheer, rolling up and down, from side 
to side, above, below, to right, to left : the voice of ap- 
proval, of consent, of unity in act and will. No one who 
saw and heard could doubt how New York was going. 

After that came events the account of which fills volumes 
of records of our national history. The ebb of the tide was 
over ; the waters were coming in with the steadiness and 
momentum of a flood which bears everything before it. 

Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix (New York, Harper 
& Brothers, 1883), II, 9-1 1. 



116. Battle of Ball Run (1861) 

BY the time I reached the top of the hill, the retreat, the 
panic, the hideous headlong confusion, were now be- 
yond a hope. I was near the rear of the movement, with 
the brave Capt. Alexander, who endeavored by the most 
gallant but unavailable exertions to check the onward tumult. 
It was difficult to believe in the reality of our sudden reverse. 
"What does it all mean?" I asked Alexander. "It means 
defeat," was his reply. "We are beaten ; it is a shameful, a 
cowardly retreat ! Hold up, men ! " he shouted, " don't be 
such infernal cowards ! " and he rode backwards and for- 
wards, placing his horse across the road and vainly trying to 



By Edmund 

Clarence 

Stedman 

(1833- ). 
then a corre- 
spondent of 
a New York 
daily (from 
which he re- 
printed this 
account), 
later a banker 
and poet. 
His report 
tallies 
with other 
accounts of 
correspond- 
ents and 
civiliaDiS. 



3o6 



Civil War 



[1861 



The cause of 
the rout 
(July 21, 
1861) was 
the inexperi- 
ence of the 
troops and 
the lack of 
acquaintance 
with their 
field officers. 
The actual 
Federal loss 
in the fight 
was not in 
proportion to 
the terror, — 
460 killed, 
1 124 

wounded, 
and 1312 
missing, out 
of 18,572 
troops en- 
gaged. The 
effect was to 
make clear 
to the North 
the real diffi- 
culty of the 
suppression 
of the Rebel- 
lion. — On 
Bull Run, see 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, Nos. 

One of this 
party was A. 
G. Riddle, 
who has a 
spirited ac- 
count in his 
Recollections 
of War 
Times. 



rally the running troops. The teams and wagons confused 
and dismembered every corps. We were now cut off from 
the advance body by the enemy's infantry, who had rushed 
on the slope jtist left by us, surrounded the guns and sutlers' 
wagons, and were apparently pressing up against us. " It's 
no use, Alexander," I said, "you must leave with the rest." 
" I'll be d — d if I will," was his sullen reply, and the splendid 
fellow rode back to make his way as best he could. Mean- 
time I saw officers with leaves and eagles on their shoulder- 
straps, majors and colonels, who had deserted their com- 
mands, pass me galloping as if for dear life. No enemy 
pursued just then; but I suppose all were afraid that his 
guns would be trained down the long, narrow avenue, and 
mow the retreating thousands, and batter to pieces army 
wagons and everything else which crowded it. Only one 
field officer, so far as my observation extended, seemed to 
have remembered his duty. Lieut-Col. Speidel, a foreigner 
attached to a Connecticut regiment, strove against the cur- 
rent for a league. I positively declare that, with the two 
exceptions mentioned, all efforts made to check the panic 
before Centreville was reached, were confined to civilians. 
I saw a man in citizen's dress, who had thrown off his coat, 
seized a musket, and was trying to rally the soldiers who 
came by at the point of the bayonet. In a reply to a request 
for his name, he said it was Washburne, and I learned he 
was the member by that name from Illinois. The Hon. Mr. 
Kellogg made a similar effort. Both these Congressmen 
bravely stood their ground till the last moment, and were 
serviceable at Centreville in assisting the halt there ultimately 
made. And other civilians did what they could. 

But what a scene ! and how terrific the onset of that 
tumultuous retreat. For three miles, hosts of federal troops 
— all detached from their regiments, all mingled in one 
disorderly rout — were fleeing along the road, but mostly 
through the lots on either side. Army wagons, sutlers' 



No. ii6] 



Bull Run 



307 



teams, and private carriages, choked the passage, tumbhng 
against each other, amid clouds of dust, and sickening sights 
and sounds. Hacks, containing unUicky spectators of the 
late affray, were smashed hke glass, and the occupants were 
lost sight of in the debris. Horses, flying wildly from the 
battle-field, many of them in death agony, galloped at ran- 
dom forward, joining in the stampede. Those on foot who 
could catch them rode them bare-back, as much to save 
themselves from being run over, as to make quicker time. 
Wounded men, lying along the banks — the few neither left 
on the field nor taken to the captured hospitals — appealed 
with raised hands to those who rode horses, begging to be 
lifted behind, but few regarded such petitions. Then the 
artillery, such as was saved, came thundering along, smash- 
ing and overpowering everything. The regular cavalry, I 
record it to their shame, joined in the mel^e, adding to its 
terrors, for they rode down footmen without mercy. One 
of the great guns was overturned and lay amid the ruins of 
a caisson, as I passed it. I saw an artillery-man running 
between the ponderous fore and after-wheels of his gun-car- 
riage, hanging on with both hands, and vainly striving to 
jump upon the ordnance. The drivers were spurring the 
horses ; he could not cling much longer, and a more agon- 
ized expression never fixed the features of a drowning man. 
The carriage bounded from the roughness of a steep hill 
leading to a creek, he lost his hold, fell, and in an instant 
the great wheels had crushed the life out of him. Who ever 
saw such a flight? Could the retreat at Borodino have ex- 
ceeded it in confusion and tumult? I think not. It did 
not slack in the least until Centreville was reached. There 
the sight of the reserve — Miles's Brigade — formed in order 
on the hill, seemed somewhat to reassure the van. But still 
the teams and foot soldiers pushed on, passing their own 
camps and heading swiftly for the distant Potomac, until for 
ten miles the road over which the grand army had so lately 



Caisson = 
the after-part 
of an artillery 
bunker, con- 
taining the 
ammunition. 



Borodino, 
place of the 
defeat of the 
Russians by 
Napoleon in 
1812. 



3o8 



Civil War 



[1861-1865 



W. H. Rus- 
sell, corre- 
spondent of 
the London 
Times, wrote 
an account 
of the battle 
which was 
then thought 
to be over- 
stated, but 
agrees sub- 
stantially 
with this. 



passed southward, gay widi unstained banners, and flushed 
with surety of strength, was covered with the fragments of 
its retreating forces, shattered and panic-stricken in a single 
day. From the branch route the trains attached to Hunter's 
Division had caught the contagion of the flight, and poured 
into its already swollen current another turbid freshet of con- 
fusion and dismay. Who ever saw a more shameful aban- 
donment of munitions gathered at such vast expense ? The 
teamsters, many of them, cut the traces of their horses, and 
galloped from the wagons. Others threw out their loads to 
accelerate their flight, and grain, picks, and shovels, and 
provisions of every kind lay trampled in the dust for leagues. 
Thousands of muskets strewed the route, and when some of 
us succeeded in rallying a body of fugitives, and forming 
them in a Hne across the road, hardly one but had thrown 
away his arms. If the enemy had brought up his ardllery 
and served it upon the retreating train, or had intercepted 
our progress with five hundred of his cavalry, he might have 
captured enough supplies for a week's feast of thanksgiving. 
As it was, enough was left behind to tell the story of the 
panic. The rout of the federal army seemed complete. 

Edmund C. Stedman, The Battle of Bull Run (New York, 1861), 
33-37- 



By George 
Gary Eg- 

GLESTON 
(1839- ). 

who served 
as a private 
in the Con- 
federate 
army and 
saw active 
service from 
Bull Run to 
Appomat- 
tox. Since 



117. The Southern Soldier (i 861-1865) 

OUR ideas of the life and business of a soldier were 
drawn chiefly from the adventures of Ivanhoe and 
Charles O'Malley, two worthies with whose personal history 
almost every man in the army was famihar[.] The men who 
volunteered went to war of their own accord, and were 
wholly unaccustomed to acting on any other than their own 
motion. They were hardy lovers of field sports, accustomed 



No. 117] 



Southern Soldier 



309 



to out-door life, and in all physical respects excellent mate- 
rial of which to make an army. But they were not used to 
control of any sort, and were not disposed to obey anybody 
except for good and sufficient reason given. While actually 
on drill they obeyed the word of command, not so much by 
reason of its being proper to obey a command, as because 
obedience was in that case necessary to the successful issue 
of a pretty performance in which they were interested. Off 
drill they did as they pleased, holding themselves gentlemen, 
and as such bound to consult only their own wills. Their 
officers were of themselves, chosen by election, and subject, 
by custom, to enforced resignation upon petition of the 
men, . . . 

With troops of this kind, the reader will readily under- 
stand, a feeling of very democratic equality prevailed, so far 
at least as military rank had anything to do with it. Officers 
were no better than men, and so officers and men messed 
and slept together on terms of entire equality, quarreling and 
even fighting now and then, in a gentlemanly way, but with- 
out a thought of allowing differences of military rank to have 
any influence in the matter. The theory was that the officers 
were the creatures of the men, chosen by election to repre- 
sent their constituency in the performance of certain duties, 
and that only during good behavior. And to this theory the 
officers themselves gave in their adhesion in a hundred ways. 
Indeed, they could do nothing else, inasmuch as they knew 
no way of quelling a mutiny. . . . 

In the camp of instruction at Ashland, where the various 
cavalry companies existing in Virginia were sent to be made 
into soldiers, it was a very common thing indeed for men 
who grew tired of camp fare to take their meals at the hotel, 
and one or two of them rented cottages and brought their 
families there, excusing themselves from attendance upon 
unreasonably early roll-calls, by pleading the distance from 
their cottages to the parade-ground. Whenever a detail was 



the war, Mr. 
Eggleston 
has been en- 
gaged in 
journalistic 
and literary 
work. In 
1874 he con- 
tributed to 
the Atlantic 
Monthly a 
series of 
papers 
called " A 
Rebel's Rec- 
ollections," 
which later 
appeared in 
book form. 
These papers 
throw much 
light on the 
internal con- 
dition of the 
Confederate 
army. — See 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, No. 



3IO Civil War [1861-1865 

made for the purpose of cleaning the camp-ground, the men 
detailed regarded themseh'es as responsible for the proper 
performance of the task by their servants, and uncomplain- 
ingly took upon themselves the duty of sitting on the fence 
and superintending the work. The two or three men of the 
overseer class who were to be found in nearly every company 
turned some nimble quarters by standing other men's turns 
of guard-duty at twenty-five cents an hour; and one young 
gentleman of my own company, finding himself assigned to 
a picket rope post, where his only duty was to guard the 
horses and prevent them, in their untrained exuberance of 
spirit, from becoming entangled in each other's heels and 
halters, coolly called his servant and turned the matter over 
to him, with a rather informal but decidedly pointed in- 
junction not to let those horses get themselves into trouble 
if he valued his hide. . . . 

It was in this undisciplined state that the men who after- 
wards made up the army under Lee were sent to the field 
to meet the enemy at Bull Run and elsewhere, and the only 
wonder is that they were ever able to fight at all. They 
were certainly not soldiers. They were as ignorant of the 
alphabet of obedience as their officers were of the art of 
commanding. And yet they acquitted themselves reason- 
ably well, a fact which can be explained only by reference to 
the causes of their insubordination in camp. These men 
were the people of the South, and the war was their own ; 
wherefore they fought to win it of their own accord, and not 
at all because their officers commanded them to do so. 
Their personal spirit and their intelligence were their sole 
elements of strength. Death has few terrors for such men, 
as compared with dishonor, and so they needed no officers 
at all, and no discipline, to insure their personal good con- 
duct on the field of battle. The same elements of character, 
too, made them accept hardship with the utmost cheerful- 
ness, as soon as hardship became a necessary condition to 



No. ii8] 



The Wounded 



311 



the successful prosecution of a war that every man of them 
regarded as his own. In camp, at Richmond or Ashland, 
they had shunned all unnecessary privation and all distaste- 
ful duty, because they then saw no occasion to endure avoid- 
able discomfort. But in the field they showed themselves 
great, stalwart men in spirit as well as in bodily frame, and 
endured cheerfully the hardships of campaigning precisely as 
they would have borne the fatigues of a hunt, as incidents 
encountered in the prosecution of their purposes. 

George Gary Eggleston, A RebeVs Recollections (New York, 
i875)> 31-39 passim. 



118. Supplies for the Wounded (1862) 

THE first two days after Brother Gushing and myself 
reached here [Washington], we were busy with the 
wounded on the steamboats coming from Acquia Creek, 
giving them soft bread and apple-sauce, and helping them 
to the ambulances. 

Thursday morning, as we were by the boats, some one 
came to us and said, that on one of the boats was a man 
who had eaten nothing for three days. With bread in our 
hands, and brandy and wine in our canteens, and hymn- 
books in the pocket, we crossed over two steamboats to one 
where nothing had been eaten for twenty-four hours. They 
had been out in the cold all night, — had lain four hours at 
Acquia Creek on the cars in the cold, and now, waiting 
hours before they could be taken from the boat's deck (3000 
wounded had come in that night), they were as patient as if 
Job had been the father of every one. But they were glad 
for something to eat, and of the hot coffee which came 
along soon. 

One man laughed as he took his bread. " What are you 
laughing at?" asked another. 



The first of 
these extracts 
is from a let- 
ter written to 
the Christian 
Commission 
by Rever- 
end Fran- 
cis Nathan 
Peloubet 

(1831- ); 

the second 

from one by. 

Reverend 

George 

Lansing 

Taylor 

(1835- ). 
chaplain of 
the Eighth 
Michigan 
regiment. 
They convey 
a good idea 
of the man- 
ner in which 
the wounded 
were cared 
for during the 
war, and of 
the work of 
the volunteer 
Christian 
Commission. 



312 Civil War [1862 

" Who wouldn't laugh to see a piece of bread ? " 

"This looks like home," — "This reminds me of home," 
was the expression of some. 

The regular Government boats are nicely fitted up, and 
have all the needful arrangements for the comfortable trans- 
portation of the wounded. But the other boats used for 
this purpose have neither food nor medicines, and a weary 
time would they have had but for the Christian Commis- 
sion. . . . One remarked, as we were leaving, " I shall 
never forget that fur cap (Cushing's) wherever I meet it." 
" Nor I," " Nor I," was the echo ; my own less distingue 
chapeau getting but a dimmer fame. . . . 

We had a large number of men convalescent and suffer- 
ing of want of appetite, and were wasting away before 
the " hardtack and bean soup of the army fare," but 
receiving at your hands some soft bread, soft crackers, 
and sweet butter, I mounted my horse, and galloped to 
my camp. I succeeded in getting to the hospital tent. 
At Falmouth, just as the nurse entered with the bean soup for dinner, 
and before which many of the pale faces turned paler, but 
, no sooner did they behold the palatable food I had, than 

every countenance lighted up with such an unutterable look 
of gratitude, that it must really be seen by any one to be 
realized. The next day I spread the crackers with butter, 
and then added a third layer of apple-butter, from the can 
you gave me, which was received with an equal amount of 
gratitude by all. ... in the characteristic manner of the 
soldier, and as no other man can utter the word, one of 
them exclaimed, " Bully for such a chaplain as you." My 
dear sir, could but the ladies and kind friends who sustain 
you come and witness a few of these cases, they would really 
believe that no one could bestow even a cup of cold water, 
but would receive their reward. . . . 

United States Christian Commission, First Annual Report 
(Philadelphia, 1863), 35-39 passim. 



No. 119] 



New Orleans 



313 



119. Farragut at New Orleans (1862) 

WE then proceeded up to New Orleans, leaving the 
Wissahicon and Kineo to protect the landing of the 
general's troops. Owing to the slowness of some of the ves- 
sels, and our want of knowledge of the river, we did not 
reach the English Turn until about 10.30 a.m. on the 25 th ; 
but all the morning I had seen abundant evidence of the 
panic which had seized the people in New Orleans. Cotton- 
loaded ships on fire came floating down, and working imple- 
ments of every kind, such as are used in ship-yards. The 
destruction of property was awful. We soon descried the 
new earthwork forts on the old hnes on both shores. We 
now formed and advanced in the same order, two lines, each 
line taking its respective work. Captain Bailey was still far 
in advance, not having noticed my signal for close order, 
which was to enable the slow vessels to come up. They 
opened on him a gaUing fire, which caused us to run up to 
his rescue ; this gave them the advantage of a raking fire on 
us for upwards of a mile with some twenty guns, while we 
had but two 9-inch guns on our forecastle to reply to them. 
It was not long, however, before we were enabled to bear 
away and give the forts a broadside of shells, shrapnell, and 
grape, the Pensacola at the same time passing up and giving 
a tremendous broadside of the same kind to the starboard 
fort ; and by the time we could reload, the Brooklyn, Cap- 
tain Craven, passed handsomely between us and the battery 
and delivered her broadside, and shut us out. By this time 
the other vessels had gotten up, and ranged in one after 
another, delivering their broadsides in spiteful revenge for 
their [/.<?. the enemies'] ill-trea[t]ment of the little Cayuga. 
The forts were silenced, and those who could run were 
running in every direction. We now passed up to the city 
and anchored immediately in front of it, and I sent Captain 



By David 
Glasgow 
Farragut 
(1801-1870). 
February 2, 
1862, Far- 
ragut sailed 
from Hamp- 
ton Roads 
with orders 
to take New 
Orleans. 
February 20, 
a land force 
was sent 
from Fortress 
Monroe, 
under Gen- 
eral Butler, to 
cooperate 
with him and 
to garrison 
the city after 
its capture. 
April 25, 
1862, the 
mayor of 
New Orleans 
surrendered 
the city to 
Farragut, as 
flag-officer, 
who handed 
it over to 
General 
Butler on 
May I. This 
event gave 
the Union 
army the 
control of the 
mouth of the 
Mississippi, 
and also, it is 
worthy of 
note, caused 
the Emperor 
Napoleon 
III to recon- 
sider his 
design of 
recognizing 
the Confed- 
eracy and 



3^4 



Civil War 



[1862 



raising the 
blockade. 

Shrapnell = 
shells filled 
wiih bullets 
and a small 
bursting 
charge. 

The " Ca- 
yuga " was 
Captain 
Bailey's ves- 
sel. 

Levee = 
embank- 
ment along 
the river. 



Forts Jack- 
son and St. 
Philip. 



r 



Bailey on shore to demand the surrender of it from the 
authorities, to which the mayor replied that the city was 
under martial law, and that he had no authority. General 
Lovell, who was present, stated that he should deliver up 
nothing, but in order to free the city from embarrassment 
he would restore the city authorities, and retire with his 
troops, which he did. . . . 

The levee of New Orleans was one scene of desolation. 
Ships, steamers, cotton, coal, &c., were all in one common 
blaze, and our ingenuity was much taxed to avoid the float- 
ing conflagration. . . . 

I next went above the city eight miles, to Carrolton, where 
I learned there were two other forts, but the panic had gone 
before me. I found the guns spiked, and the gun-carriages 
in flames. The first work, on the right, reaches from the 
Mississippi nearly over to Pontchartrain, and has 29 guns ; 
the one on the left had six guns, from which Commander 
Lee took some fifty barrels of powder, and completed the 
destruction of the gun-carriages, &c. A mile higher up 
there were two other earthworks, but not yet armed. . . . 

On the evening of the 29th Captain Bailey arrived from 
below, with the gratifying intelligence that the forts had sur- 
rendered to Commander Porter, and had delivered up all 
public property, and were being paroled, and that the navy 
had been made to surrender unconditionally, as they had 
conducted themselves with bad faith, burning and sinking 
their vessels while a flag of truce was flying, and the forts 
negotiating for their surrender, and the Louisiana, their great 
iron-clad battery, blown up almost alongside of the vessel 
where they were negotiating ; hence their officers were not 
paroled, but sent home to be treated according to the judg- 
ment of the government. 

General Butler came up the same day, and arrangements 
were made for bringing up his troops. 

I sent on shore and hoisted the American flag on the cus- 



No. 120] 



Emancipation 



315 



tom-house, and hauled down the Louisiana State flag from 
the city hall, as the mayor had avowed that there was no 
man in New Orleans who dared to haul it down ; and my 
own convictions are that if such an individual could have 
been found he would have been assassinated. 



Secretary of the Navy, Report, 1862 
281 passim. 



(Washington, 1863), 279- 



120. Proclamation of Emancipation (1862) 

THE appointed hour found -me at the well-remembered 
door of the official chamber, — that door watched 
daily, with so many conflicting emotions of hope and fear, 
by the anxious throng regularly gathered there. The Presi- 
dent had preceded me, and was already deep in Acts of 
Congress, with which the writing-desk was strewed, awaiting 
his signature. He received me pleasantly, giving me a seat 
near his own arm-chair ; and after having read Mr. Love- 
joy's note, he took ofl" his spectacles, and said, " Well, Mr. 

C , we will turn you in loose here, and try to give you 

a good chance to work out your idea." Then, without pay- 
ing much attention to the enthusiastic expression of my 
ambitious desire and purpose, he proceeded to give me 
a detailed account of the history and issue of the great 
proclamation. 

" It had got to be," said he, " midsummer, 1862. Things 
had gone on from bad to worse, until I felt that we had 
reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations we 
had been pursuing ; that we had about played our last card, 
and must change our tactics, or lose the game ! I now de- 
termined upon the adoption of the emancipation policy ; 
and, without consultation with, or the knowledge of the 
Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation, 



By Francis 

BiCKNELL 

Carpenter 
(1830- ), 
a portrait- 
painter, who 
has had 
many distin- 
guished sit- 
ters. In 1864 
he painted a 
large histori- 
cal picture 
representing 
the signing 
of the eman- 
cipation 
proclama- 
tion on Janu- 
ary I, 1863. 
During the 
execution of 
this task, he 
was thrown 
into confi- 
dential per- 
sonal contact 
with the 
President, 
and gained 
thereby 
much knowl- 
edge of his 
character 
and policy; 
he afterward 
threw his re- 
membrances 
together into 
the book 



3i6 



Civil War 



[1862 



from which 
this extract is 
taken. — On 
Lincoln, see 
above, No. 
Ill, and be- 
low. No. 124. 
— On eman- 
cipation, see 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, ch. 

The meeting 
was held 
July 22. 



Chase has 
left an ac- 
count in his 
diary 

(printed in 
R. B. War- 
den's biogra- 
phy). 

Seward was 
Secretary of 
State. 



and, after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting 
upon the subject. This was the last of July, or the first part 
of the month of August, 1862." (The exact date he did not 
remember.) " This Cabinet meeting took place, I think, upon 
a Saturday. All were present, excepting Mr. Blair, the Post- 
master-General, who was absent at the opening of the dis- 
cussion, but came in subsequently. I said to the Cabinet 
that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them 
together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a 
proclamation before them ; suggestions as to which would be 
in order, after they had heard it read. Mr. Lovejoy," said 
he, " was in error when he informed you that it excited 
no comment, excepting on the part of Secretary Seward. 
Various suggestions were offered. Secretary Chase wished 
the language stronger in reference to the arming of the 
blacks. Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy, 
on the ground that it would cost the Administration the fall 
elections. Nothing, however, was offered that I had not al- 
ready fully anticipated and settled in my own mind, until 
Secretary Seward spoke. He said in substance : ' Mr. Presi- 
dent, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the ex- 
pediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression 
of the pubhc mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, 
is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It 
may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted govern- 
ment, a cry for help ; the government stretching forth its 
hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her 
hands to the government.' His idea," said the President, 
" was that it would be considered our last shriek, on the re- 
treat." (This was \iv=, precise expression.) "'Now,' con- 
tinued Mr. Seward, ' while I approve the measure, I suggest, 
sir, that you postpone its issue, until you can give it to the 
country supported by military success, instead of issuing it, 
as would be the case now, upon the greatest disasters of the 
war ! ' " Mr. Lincoln continued : " The wisdom of the view 



No. I20] Emancipation 317 

of the Secretary of State struck me with very great force. 

It was an aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon 

the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The result was that 

I put the draft of the proclamation aside, as you do your 

sketch for a picture, waiting for a victory. From time to 

time I added or changed a hne, touching it up here and 

there, anxiously watching the progress of events. Well, the 

next news we had was of Pope's disaster, at Bull Run. August 30. 

Things looked darker than ever. Finally, came the week of 

the battle of Antietam. I determined to wait no longer. September 

The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that the advantage ^^' ^7" 

was on our side. I was then staying at the Soldiers' Home, 

(three miles out of Washington.) Here I finished writing 

the second draft of the preliminary proclamation ; came up 

on Saturday ; called the Cabinet together to hear it, and it 

was published the following Monday." 

At the final meeting of September 20th, another interest- 
ing incident occurred in connection with Secretary Seward. 
The President had written the important part of the procla- 
mation in these words : — 

"That, on the first day of January, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all per- 
sons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a 
State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against 
the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever 
free; and the Executive Government of the United States, 
including the military and naval authority thereof, will recog- 
nize the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to 
repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may 
make for their actual freedom." " When I finished reading 
this paragraph," resumed Mr. Lincoln, "Mr. Seward stopped 
me, and said, ' I think, Mr. President, that you should insert 
after the word " recognize,''^ in that sentence, the words 
" and maintain.''' ' I replied that I had already fully con- 
sidered the import of that expression in this connection, 



3i8 



Civil War 



[1863 



but I had not introduced it, because it was not my way to 
promise what I was not entirely sm-e that I could perform, 
and I was not prepared to say that I thought we were ex- 
actly able to ' maintain ' this." 

" But," said he, " Seward insisted that we ought to take 
this ground ; and the words finally went in ! " 

" It is a somewhat remarkable fact," he subsequently re- 
marked, " that there were just one hundred days between 
the dates of the two proclamations issued upon the 2 2d of 
September and the ist of January. I had not made the 
calculation at the time." 

Having concluded this interesting statement, the President 
then proceeded to show me the various positions occupied 
by himself and the different members of the Cabinet, on 
the occasion of the first meeting. " As nearly as I remem- 
ber," said he, " I sat near the head of the table ; the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury and the Secretary of War were here, 
at my right hand ; the others were grouped at the left." 

F[rancis] B[icknell] Carpenter, Six Months at the White House 
ivith Abraham Lincoln (New York, 1866), 20-24. 



By Dr. Al- 
bert Gail- 
lard Hart 
(1821- ), 
long a prac- 
tising physi- 
cian in 
western 
Pennsylva- 
nia, a volun- 
teer of 1861, 
and a soldier 
of three 
years' service 
in the Civil 
War as sur- 
geon of the 



121. In the Thick of the Fight (1863) 

Hospital 41 st Regiment O. V. I. at Division Hospital 
Second Division, Crittenden's Corps, three miles 

NORTH OF MuRPHYSBOROUGH, TENNESSEE, 

January 7TH, 1863. 

MY dearest wife; 
You will have ere this some account of the battle 
of Murphysborough, or Stone River. The great battle was 
fought on the 31st of December. The rebel forces attacked 
our right wing. General Mack Cook's corps, and took us 
entirely by surprise. Their left line extended much beyond 



No. 121 ] 



Murfreesboro 



319 



our right and as they came near us they wheeled their 
extreme left, which brought them in a position to rake us or 
fire along our line. No command can long stand up under 
such a fire, and ours broke back in utter rout, and carried 
with them as in a mighty reflex wave division after division, 
Jeff C. Davis, Johnson, Sheridan, and Negley's divisions, and 
the right of our own Palmer's. By noon our line had been 
driven so far back as to be nearly at a right angle to the 
position which we had occupied at 8 o'clock in the morning. 
At my standpoint, this hospital nearly two miles in the rear, 
a cloud of fugitives numbering thousands were seen flying 
toward the rear, not an army, but a cloud of helpless, terror- 
stricken, totally disorganized and disbanded men, followed 
by a few hundred rebel cavalry, who' shot down or captured 
the men at pleasure. Our Division Hospital fell into their 
hands and a mile or two of the transportation along the pike, 
on which we were advancing. Our left at the same time 
was turned by the rebel cavalry. Fortunately our cavalry 
coming up re-took our hospital a half hour after the rebels 
had taken possession of it, and I saw my first cavalry fight 
between our own and rebel cavalry. 

For a time it seemed as if the day was hopelessly lost. 
Still many of the regiments kept their men in the rallying 
distance, and fell back in partial order. They formed at 
last, after Rousseau's reserves had come into line, and aided 
to save the day. Still back and back came our right, and 
all that could be done was to change our front so as to face 
the rebels as they came surging up. Artillery discharges at 
the rate of 60 per minute could not leave a field long 
contested. Every brigade yielded in the fatal tide. Two 
brigades of our division wheeled into the same line ; the 
19th, our own, is next and the last. The right of our brigade 
necessarily falls back to take line with that which adjoins it. 
Will our left too give back? The 41st is on the extreme left 
to the left of the pike. At the left of our regiment the 



41st Ohio 
Volunteer 
Infantry. He 
made the 
selection for 
this work out 
of three 
hundred of 
his war let- 
ters now pre- 
served. 

Murphys- 
borough = 
Murfrees- 
boro. 

" Mack 
Cook" 
was Gen. A. 
McD. Mc- 
Cook, one oi 
"the fighting 
McCooks." 



Surgeons 
were seldom 
carried away 
as prisoners. 



320 



Civil War 



[ia63 



A. B. Hazen, 
then colonel 
of the 41st, 
later a major- 
general. 



This is a ter- 
rible percent- 
age of loss for 
a single fight. 



retreat ceases, and on it, as on a pivot, the brigade swings 
round and rests. Five times the rebels poured a sheet 
of flame, and a cloud of musketry and artillery upon 
us. Supported by Cockerel's battery we hold our ground 
successfully. 

Too much credit cannot be given Colonel Hazen com- 
manding our brigade. Few men could have held troops 
under so galling a fire. Our loss is double that of regiments 
on the right wing, as thousands threw away their muskets, 
and did not fire a round. 

Our complete return of killed and wounded is, killed 16, 
wounded 94, no out of 413 men engaged. 

Two days after the battle the rebels under General Breck- 
enridge came down on our left wing with 10,000 men mostly 
Kentuckians. As they descended the slope toward Stone 
River, Van Cleve's Division, which was lying opposite where 
they emerged from the woods, were driven out like a flock 
of sheep. Most fortunately and providentially for us Gen- 
eral Rosecrans had caused to be parked 52 pieces of artil- 
lery directly opposite their point of attack. Every piece 
was opened upon them and according to the rebel account 
when they went back in 40 minutes they left 2,000 men dead 
and wounded upon the field. 

You will know that the rebels have evacuated Murphys- 
borough and are in full march for the South. 



From MS. letters communicated for this volume by Dr. Hart. 



By "A 

Lady." The 
account from 
which this 
extract is 
taken is hy 
an anony- 



12 2. Cave Life in a Besieged City (1863) 

SO constantly dropped the shells around the city, that the 
inhabitants all made preparations to live under tue 
ground during the siege. M sent over and had a cave 



No. 



122] Siege of Vicksburg 321 



made in a hill near by. We seized the opportunity one 
evening, when the gunners were probably at their supper, 
for we had a few moments of quiet, to go over and take 

possession. We were under the care of a friend of M , 

who was paymaster on the staff of the same General with 

whom M was Adjutant. We had neighbors on both 

sides of us ; and it would have been an amusing sight to a 
spectator to witness the domestic scenes presented without 
by the number of servants preparing the meals under the 
high bank containing the caves. 

Our dining, breakfasting, and supper hours were quite 
irregular. When the shells were falling fast, the servants 
came in for safety, and our meals waited for completion 
some little time ; again they would fall slowly, with the lapse 
of many minutes between, and out would start the cooks to 
their work. 

Some families had light bread made in large quantities, 
and subsisted on it with milk (provided their cows were not 
killed from one milking time to another), without any more 
cooking, until called on to replenish. Though most of us 
lived on corn bread and bacon, served three times a day, the 
only luxury of the meal consisting in its warmth, I had some 
flour, and frequently had some hard, tough biscuit made 
from it, there being no soda or yeast to be procured. At 
this time we could, also, procure beef. . . . And so I 
went regularly to work, keeping house under ground. Our 
new habitation was an excavation made in the earth, and 
branching six feet from the entrance, forming a cave in the 
shape of a T. In one of the wings my bed fitted ; the other 
I used as a kind of a dressing room ; in this the earth had 
been cut down a foot or two below the floor of the main 
cave ; I could stand erect here ; and when tired of sitting in 
other portions of my residence, I bowed myself into it, and 
stood impassively resting at full height — one of the varia- 
tions in the still shell-expectant life. M 's servant 



mous hand. 
It appeared 
in 1864, and 
faithfully 
pictures the 
conditions in 
Vicksburg 
during the 
siege by 
Grant's army. 
It is an ex- 
ample of the 
picturesque- 
ness of a 
personal nar- 
rative. — 
Compare 
above, Nos. 
60, 84, 86, 
114, 116, 121. 
— On the 
Vicksburg 
campaign, 
see Contem- 
poraries, IV, 
ch. 

"M " 

was the hus- 
band of the 
narrator. 



3 2 2 Civil War [1863 

cooked for us under protection of the hill. Our quarters 
were close, indeed ; yet I was more comfortable than I 
expected I could have been made under the earth in that 
fashion. 

We were safe at least from fragments of shell — and they 
were flying in all directions ; though no one seemed to think 
our cave any protection, should a mortar shell happen to 
fall directly on top of the ground above us. . . . 

And so the weary days went on — the long, weary days — 
when we could not tell in what terrible form death might 
come to us before the sun went down. Another fear that 

troubled M • was, that our provisions might not last us 

during the siege. He would frequently urge me to husband 
all that I had, for troublesome times were probably in store 
for us ; told me of the soldiers in the intrenchraents, who 
would have gladly eaten the bread that was left from our 
meals, for they were suffering every privation, and that our 
servants lived far better than these men who were defending 
the city. Soon the pea meal became an article of food for 
us also, and a very unpalatable article it proved. To make 
it of proper consistency, we were obliged to mix some corn 
meal with it, which cooked so much faster than the pea 
meal, that it burned before the bread was. half done. The 
taste was peculiar and disagreeable. . . . 

Still, we had nothing to complain of in comparison with 
the soldiers : many of them were sick and wounded in a 
hospital in the most exposed parts of the city, with shells 
falling and exploding all around them. . . . 

Even the very animals seemed to share the general fear 
of a sudden and frightful death. The dogs would be seen 
in the midst of the noise to gallop up the street, and then to 
return, as if fear had maddened them. On hearing the 
descent of a shell, they would dart aside — then, as it ex- 
ploded, sit down and howl in the most pitiful manner. 
There were many walking the street, apparently without 
homes. . . . 



No. 123] 



Gettysburg 



323 



In the midst of other miserable thoughts, it came into my Vicksburg 
mind one day, that these dogs through hunger might become ^rrendei^d 
as much to be dreaded as wolves. Groundless was this to Grant, 
anxiety, for in the course of a week or two they had almost 
disappeared. 

A Lady, My Cave Life hi Vicksburg (New York, etc., 1864), 
58-78 passim. (Entered, according to Act of Congress, in 
the year 1864, by D. Appleton and Company.) 



123. Battle of Gettysburg (1863) 
THE GREAT VICTORY. 



The Rebel Army Totally- 
Defeated. 



ITS REMAINS DRIVEN INTO 
THE MOUNTAINS. 



It is There Surrounded 
and Hemmed in. 



Its Retreat Across the Potomac 
River Cut Off. 



TWENTY THOUSAND PRISONERS CAPTURED 



By a corre- 
spondent of 
the New 
York 
Tribune. 
This account 
of one of the 
greatest bat- 
tles of the 
war, from the 
pages of a 
leading 
Northern 
paper, will 
serve to con- 
vey an idea 
of how the 
people were 
kept in- 
formed of 
what was 
going on at 
the front. — 
On the cam- 
paign of Get- 
tysburg, see 
Conteinpora- 
ries, IV, No. 



One Hundred and Eighteen Guns Taken. 



The Rebel General Longstreet Killed 



3^4 



Civil War 



[1863 



DETAILS OF THE THREE DAYS' FIGHTING. 



The Most Terrific Combat on Record 



Desperate Charges by the Rebel 
Troops Massed. 



OUR TROOPS STAND FIRM AS A ROCK. 



The Rebel Assaults Repeatedly Repulsed. 



Their Solid Ranks Dashed into Fragments. 



STILL THE UNION ARMY STAND FIRM. 



The Rebels Pause — Waver — Break 
and Scatter. 



A great and Glorious Victory for the 
Potomac Army. 



Lee had 

crossed the 
Potomac and 
penetrated 
into Pennsyl- 
vania. 



YESTERDAY, the third day's struggle of the Army of 
the Potomac, brought another triumph to our army, 
and last night another sun set over a victorious but bloody- 
fought battle-field. The flower of the Southern army threw 
itself in one gigantic death-struggle upon our army, its 
Generals swearing to pierce our center or go down before 
the valor of our troops. The onset was fierce and bloody, 
and cost us many brave men, but the repulse of the invaders 
was complete, and thousands of slaughtered Rebels lay 
strewn along the ground, while thousands fell into our hands 
as prisoners. Many battle-flags have been taken. Four 
thousand Rebels captured yesterday are on their way to 
Baltimore, and several thousand are in camp guarded by 
our men. 



No. 123] Gettysburg 325 ' 

Gen. Meade has now the admiration of the whole army. 
His daring acts and military strategy in placing in position 
his victorious army increase confidence in his generalship. 
He has fought as no one ever fought the Potomac army 
before. . . . 

The following details of the battle were taken by your 
correspondent from Gen. Hancock, who commanded the 
Second Corps during the fight till evening, when a Rebel 
bullet compelled him to fall to the rear. 

As the firing ceased on Thursday night and our army, Thursday 
flushed, with victory, covered the enemy's ground, it held ^^^ ^l"^ ^^^" 
command of the bloody battle field of the day. fighting. 

The Rebel flag of truce was denied, and Friday morning The third 
found our army re-enforced by the reserves of the Sixth Q^ys fight. 
Corps, Gen. Sedgwick, and Twelfth Corps, Gen. Slocum. 
Holding the field, our army was in line of battle along the 
Emmettsburg Turnpike and along the Taneytown Road, 
Several rifle pits on the extreme right were left in possession 
of the enemy on Thursday night. 

On Friday morning the ball was opened by Gen. Geary, 
who moved upon the enemy to retake these rifle pits. 
Firing now became general, and continued without damage 
to us until eleven o'clock, the rifle-pits falling into our 
possession. From 1 1 till i o'clock the firing slackened, but 
as I o'clock arrived, there were indications of another clash 
of arms more bloody than the historian of the war has yet 
recorded. The Rebels under Gen. Ewell now made a con- This was 
centration of all their artillery, and opened a terrible artillery ^"0^5° terrible 
fire on our left center. Battery after battery roared, shaking cannonades 
the surrounding hills, and shot and shell rained death and 
destruction upon our lines. 

The Second Corps occupied the center, and the position 
which withstood the last convulsive attack of the Rebels was 
commanded by Gen. Hayes. The enemy followed their 
artillery with a tremendous infantry assault under the Rebel 



326 



Civil War 



[1863 



General 
Pickett 
was really in 
command. 



Lee was still 
able to hold 
his army to- 
gether and 
recross the 
Potomac, but 
it was the last 
campaign in 
the North. 



Gen. Anderson, coming up in masses, sometimes in dose 
column by division. Our men stood like serried hosts, and 
on came the enemy, crowding, shouting, and rushing toward 
our guns like infuriated demons. There was no waver in 
our lines. On came the Rebels, while the canister from 
batteries told fearfully among their dying ranks. Now they 
are within twenty yards of our guns, and volley after volley 
of shot and shell and whizzing bullets go crashing down 
among them, dealing death and scattering the motley ranks 
to die or surrender. 

The slaughter was fearful, and there were a few men of 
the enemy who did not find even a grave near our guns. 
The Third and Fifth Corps now joined in the fight. Gen. 
Hill's division alone took ten battle flags as this last move 
of the enemy burst upon our center. A panic seemed to 
seize them. Men laid down on the ground to escape our 
fire and lying there they supplicatingly held up white pieces 
of paper in token of surrender. In this repulse we took 
several thousand prisoners, and crowds of Rebel stragglers 
came into our lines giving themselves up in despair. 

Gen. Hancock's corps now flanked the field, when crowds 
of disorganized Rebels threw up their arms and surrendered, 
while the field strewn with Rebel wounded, battle flags and 
arms fell into our possession. 

The result amounted to a rout. Cavalry has been sent 
out to harvest the straggle[r]s. Gen. Hayes is said to have 
covered himself with glory. General Doubleday fell fight- 
ing gallantly, saying, as a ball pierced his head, " I'm killed ! 
I'm killed ! " Gen. Hancock thinks he is not killed, but 
seriously wounded. And thus night has drawn her mantle 
over another bloody day, but a day so bright with deeds of 
heroism and grand results, with patriotic devotion and 
sublime death, that the page of History shall glitter with 
that fight. . . . 

This is universally allowed to have been the most des- 



No. 124] Lincoln and Slavery 327 

perate battle of the war. The 20th Massachusetts went 
into action with two hundred and fifty and came out with 

NINETY-FIVE. . . . 

New- York Tribune, July 6, 1863, p. i. 



124. The War and Slavery (1864) 

I AM naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, noth- 
ing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so 
think and feel, and yet I have never understood that the 
presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act 
officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the 
oath I took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, 
protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. 
I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor 
was it my view that I might take an oath to get power and 
break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that 
in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to 
practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the 
moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many 
times, and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I 
have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract 
judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, how- 
ever, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best 
of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by 
every indispensable means, that government — that nation, 
of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it 
possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution ? 
By general law, life and limb must be protected, yet often a 
limb must be amputated to save a life ; but a Hfe is never 
wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise 
unconstitutional might become lawful by becoming indis- 



By Abra- 
ham Lin- 
coln (1809- 
1865). This 
is a very clear 
presentation 
of President 
Lincoln's at- 
titude on the 
two problems 
placed in his 
hands for so- 
lution on his 
assumption 
of the office 
of chief mag- 
istrate ; it is 
also a clear 
enunciation 
of the rea- 
sons induc- 
ing him to 
proclaim 
military 
emancipa- 
tion and to 
arm the 
blacks, with 
a fair-minded 
estimate of 
the results of 
that step. — 
For Lincoln's 
views on 
slavery, see 
above, Nos. 
Ill, 120. — 
For slavery, 
see ch. xv, 
above. — For 
slavery in the 
Civil War, 



328 



Civil War 



[1864 



see Nicolay 
and Hay, 
Abraham 
Lincoln, a 
History 
(10 vols.) ; R. 
B. Warden, 
Salmon P. 
Chase; E. L. 
Pierce, 
Charles Sum- 
ner (4 vols.) ; 
Garrisons, 
Life of 
William 
Lloyd Garri- 
son told by his 
Children (4 
vols.). 

Fremont's 
attempt, 
August 30, 
1861 ; Cam- 
eron's, De- 
cember I, 
1861; Hunt- 
er's, May 9, 
1862. 



pensable to the preservation of the Constitution through the 
preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this 
ground, and now avow it. I could not feel that, to the best 
of my ability, I had even tried to preserve the Constitution, 
if, to save slavery or any minor matter, I should permit the 
wreck of government, country, and Constitution all together. 
When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted military 
emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it 
an indispensable necessity. When, a little later. General 
Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of 
the blacks, I objected because I did not yet think it an 
indispensable necessity. When, still later. General Hunter 
attempted mihtary emancipation, I again forbade it, because 
I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come. 
When in March and May and July, 1862, 1 made earnest and 
successive appeals to the border States to favor compensated 
emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for 
military emancipation and arming the blacks would come 
unless averted by that measure. They declined the propo- 
sition, and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alter- 
native of either surrendering the Union, and with it the 
Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored ele- 
ment. I chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for 
greater gain than loss ; but of this, I was not entirely con- 
fident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it 
in our foreign relations, none in our home popular senti- 
ment, none in our white military force — no loss by it any- 
how or anywhere. On the contrary it shows a gain of quite 
a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, and labor- 
ers. These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there 
can be no caviling. We have the men ; and we could not 
have had them without the measure. 

And now let any Union man who complains of the meas- 
ure test himself by writing down in one line that he is for 
subduing the rebellion by force of arms ; and in the next. 






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No, 



125] Surrender of Lee 



329 



that he is for taking these hundred and thirty thousand men 
from the Union side, and placing them where they would be 
but for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his 
case so stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth. 
... In telling this tale I attempt no compliment to my 
own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but 
confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at 
the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is 
not what either party, or any man, devised or expected. 
God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. 
If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills 
also that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall 
pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history 
will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice 
and goodness of God. 

Abraham Lincoln, Complete Works (edited by John G. Nicolay 
and John Hay, New York, 1894), II, ^^oZ-t^oc) passim. 



125. Surrender of Lee (1865) 

GENERAL GRANT began the conversation by saying : 
" I met you once before, General Lee, while we were 
serving in Mexico, when you came over from General Scott's 
headquarters to visit Garland's brigade, to which I then be- 
longed. I have always remembered your appearance, and I 
think I should have recognized you anywhere." " Yes," re- 
plied General Lee, " I know I met you on that occasion, 
and I have often thought of it and tried to recollect how 
you looked, but I have never been able to recall a single 
feature." After some further mention of Mexico, General 
Lee said : " I suppose. General Grant, that the object of our 
present meeting is fully understood. I asked to see you to 



By Horace 
Porter 

(1837- ) 
who was on 
the staff of 
General 
McCIellan 
and served 
with the 
Army of the 
Potomac till 
after the bat- 
tle of Antie- 
tam. He 
went 

through the 
Chicka- 
mauga cam- 
paign with 
the Army of 
the Cumber- 
land. Com- 



330 



Civil War 



[1865 



ing East as an 
aid-de-camp 
on Grant's 
staff, he ac- 
companied 
him through 
the Wilder- 
ness cam- 
paign, the 
siege of 
Richmond 
and Peters- 
burg, and 
was present 
at the siege 
of Appomat- 
tox. He 
came out 
brevet briga- 
dier-general. 
His is an eye- 
witness's 
story of the 
closing event 
in the Civil 
War.— On 
the surren- 
der, see Con- 
temporaries, 
IV, No. 



ascertain upon what terms you would receive the surrender 
of my army." General Grant replied: "The terms I pro- 
pose are those stated substantially in my letter of yesterday, 
— that is, the officers and men surrendered to be paroled 
and disqualified from taking up arms again until properly 
exchanged, and all arms, ammunition, and supplies to be 
delivered up as captured property." Lee nodded an assent, 
and said : " Those are about the conditions which I ex- 
pected would be proposed." General Grant then continued : 
" Yes, I think our correspondence indicated pretty clearly 
the action that would be taken at our meeting ; and I hope 
it may lead to a general suspension of hostilities and be the 
means of preventing any further loss of life." 

Lee inclined his head as indicating his accord with this 
wish, and General Grant then went on to talk at some length 
in a very pleasant vein about the prospects of peace. Lee 
was evidently anxious to proceed to the formal work of the 
surrender, and he brought the subject up again by saying : 

" I presume, General Grant, we have both carefully con- 
sidered the proper steps to be taken, and I would suggest 
that you commit to writing the terms you have proposed, so 
that they may be formally acted upon." 

" Very well," replied General Grant, " I will write them 
out." And calling for his manifold order-book, he opened 
it on the table before him and proceeded to write the terms. 
The leaves had been so prepared that three impressions of 
the writing were made. He wrote very rapidly, and did not 
pause until he had finished the sentence ending with " offi- 
cers appointed by me to receive them." Then he looked 
toward Lee, and his eyes seemed to be resting on the 
handsome sword that hung at that officer's side. He said 
afterward that this set him to thinking that it would be an 
unnecessary humiliation to require the officers to surrender 
their swords, and a great hardship to deprive them of their 
personal baggage and horses, and after a short pause he wrote 



No. 125] Surrender of Lee 331 

the sentence : " This will not embrace the side-arms of the 
officers, nor their private horses or baggage." . . . When 
this had been done, he handed the book to General Lee 
and asked him to read over the letter. . . . 

. . . When Lee came to the sentence about the officers' 
side-arms, private horses, and baggage, he showed for the 
first time during the reading of the letter a slight change of 
countenance, and was evidently touched by this act of gen- 
erosity. It was doubtless the condition mentioned to which 
he particularly alluded when he looked toward General 
Grant as he finished reading and said with some degree 
of warmth in his manner : " This will have a very happy 
effect upon my army." 

General Grant then said : " Unless you have some sug- 
gestions to make in regard to the form in which I have 
stated the terms, I will have a copy of the letter made in ink 
and sign it." 

"There is one thing I would like to mention," Lee replied 
after a short pause. " The cavalrymen and artillerists own 
their own horses in our army. Its organization in this re- 
spect differs from that of the United States." This expres- 
sion attracted the notice of our officers present, as showing 
how firmly the conviction was grounded in his mind that we 
were two distinct countries. He continued : " I would like 
to understand whether these men will be permitted to retain 
their horses ? " 

"You will find that the terms as written do not allow 
this," General Grant replied ; "only the officers are permitted 
to take their private property." 

Lee read over the second page of the letter again, and 
then said : 

" No, I see the terms do not allow it ; that is clear." His 
face showed plainly that he was quite anxious to have this 
concession made, and Grant said very promptly and without 
giving Lee time to make a direct request : 



33 2 Civil War [1865 

"Well, the subject is quite new to me. Of course I did 
not know that any private soldiers owned their animals, but 
I think this will be the last battle of the war — I sincerely 
hope so — and that the surrender of this army will be fol- 
lowed soon by that of all the others, and I take it that most 
of the men in the ranks are small farmers, and as the country 
has been so raided by the two armies, it is doubtful whether 
they will be able to put in a crop to carry themselves and 
their families through the next winter without the aid of the 
horses they are now riding, and I will arrange it in this way : 
I will not change the terms as now written, but I will instruct 
the ofificers I shall appoint to receive the paroles to let all 
the men who claim to own a horse or mule take the animals 
home with them to work their little farms." (This expres- 
sion has been quoted in various forms and has been the sub- 
ject of some dispute. I give the exact words used.) . . . 

. . , General Lee now took the initiative again in leading 
the conversation back into business channels. He said : 

" I have a thousand or more of your men as prisoners, 
General Grant, a number of them officers whom we have 
required to march along with us for several days. I shall 
be glad to send them into your lines as soon as it can be 
arranged, for I have no provisions for them. I have, indeed, 
nothing for my own men. They have been living for the 
last few days principally upon parched corn, and we are 
badly in need of both rations and forage. . . . 

. . . General Grant replied : " I should hke to have our 
men sent within our lines as soon as possible. I will take 
steps at once to have your army supplied with rations, but I 
am sorry we have no forage for the animals." . . . 

... At a little before 4 o'clock General Lee shook hands 
with General Grant, bowed to the other officers, and with 
Colonel Marshall left the room. One after another we fol- 
lowed, and passed out to the porch. Lee signaled to his 
orderly to bring up his horse, and while the animal was being 



No. 126] ^' The First American " 333 

bridled the general stood on the lowest step and gazed sadly 
in the direction of the valley beyond where his army lay — 
now an army of prisoners. He smote his hands together a 
number of times in an absent sort of a way ; seemed not to 
see the group of Union officers in the yard who rose respect- 
fully at his approach, and appeared unconscious of everything 
about him. All appreciated the sadness that overwhelmed 
him, and he had the personal sympathy of every one who 
beheld him at this supreme moment of trial. The approach 
of his horse seemed to recall him from his reverie, and he 
at once mounted. General Grant now stepped down from 
the porch, and, moving toward him, saluted him by raising 
his hat. He was followed in this act of courtesy by all our 
officers present ; Lee raised his hat respectfully, and rode 
off to break the sad news to the brave fellows whom he had 
so long commanded. 

Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel, editors, 
Battles atid Leaders of the Civil War (Century Company, 
New York, 1889), W ^jyj-i^i passitn. 



126. Abraham Lincoln (1865) rus^l? 

Lowell, for 
■y' whom see 

above, No. 
........ 104. — This 

LIFE may be given in many ways, IribuTe^m the 

And loyalty to Truth be sealed greatest man 

.,,.,, , ^ , , 'n our coun- 

As bravely m the closet as the field, try's history. 

So generous is Fate ; 

But then to stand beside her 

When craven churls deride her. 
To front a lie in arms and not to yield, — 

This shows, methinks, God's plan 

And measure of a stalwart man, 



3 34 Civil War [1865 

Limbed like the old heroic breeds, 
Who stands self-poised on manhood's solid earth, 
Not forced to frame excuses for his birth, 
Fed from within with all the strength he needs. 

VI. 

Such was he, our Martyr-chief, 
Whom late the Nation he had led, 
With ashes on her head. 
Wept with the passion of an angry grief: 
Forgive me if from present things I turn 
To speak what in my heart will beat and burn, 
And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn. 
Nature, they say, doth dote, 
And cannot make a man 
Save on some worn-out plan, 
Repeating us by rote ; 
For him her Old-World mould aside she threw, 
And, choosing sweet clay from the breast 
Of the unexhausted West, 
With stuff untainted shaped a hero new, 
Wise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true. 

How beautiful to see 
Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed 
Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead, 
One whose meek flock the people joyed to be, 
Not lured by any cheat of birth. 
But by his clear-grained human worth, 
And brave old wisdom of sincerity ! 
They knew that outward grace is dust. 
They could not choose but trust 
In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill, 

And supple-tempered will 
That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust. 
The lines en- [His was no lonely mountain-peak of mind, 



No. 126] '^ The First American" 335 

Thrusting to thin air o'er our cloudy bars, dosed in 

A sea-mark now, now lost in vapors blind ; nCt'in^the^'^^ 

Broad prairie rather, genial, level-lined, original 1865 

Fruitful and friendly for all human kind. 
Yet also nigh to heaven and loved of loftiest stars.] 

Nothing of Europe here. 
Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still, 
Ere any names of Serf and Peer 
Could Nature's equal scheme deface ; 
[And thwart her genial will ;] 
Here was a type of the true elder race. 
And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face. 

I praise him not ; it were too late ; 
And some innative weakness there must be 
In him who condescends to victory 
Such as the Present gives, and cannot wait, 
Safe in himself as in a fate. 
So always firmly he ; 
He knew to bide his time 
And can his fame abide. 
Still patient in his simple faith sublime, 
Till the wise years decide ; 
Great captains, with their guns and drums. 
Disturb our judgment for the hour ; 
But at last silence comes ; 
These all are gone, and, standing hke a tower, 
Our children shall behold his fame, 

The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, 
Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame. 
New birth of our new soil, the first American. 

James Russell Lowell. Ode recited at the Coniinemoration of the 
Livitig and Dead Soldiers of Harvard University, July 21, 
1865 (Cambridge, 1865), 15-18. 



By Sidney 
Andrews, 
who spent 
the months 
of Septem- 
ber, October, 
and Novem- 
ber, 1865, in 
the States of 
North Caro- 
lina, South 
Carolina, and 
Georgia, as 
correspond- 
ent of the 
Boston Ad- 
vertiser and 
the Chicago 
Tribune. 
His letters to 
those papers 
were pub- 
lished in 
book form 
during the 
spring of the 
next year. 
He observed 
closely and 
commented 
intelligently 
on what he 
saw. — On 
the negro, 
see Contem- 
poraries, IV, 
ch. 

— On re- 
construction, 
see American 
Orations, IV, 
3-15, 125- 
188 ; Ameri- 
can History 
studies. 



CHAPTER XIX — RECONSTRUCTION, 

1865-1871 

127. Condition of the South (1865) 

A CITY of ruins, of desolation, of vacant houses, of 
widowed women, of rotting wharves, of deserted 
warehouses, of weed-wild gardens, of miles of grass-grown 
streets, of acres of pitiful and voiceful barrenness, — that is 
Charleston, wherein Rebellion loftily reared its head five years 
ago, on whose beautiful promenade the fairest of cultured 
women gathered with passionate hearts to applaud the 
assault of ten thousand upon the little garrison of Fort 
Sumter ! . . . 

We never again can have the Charleston of the decade 
previous to the war. The beauty and pride of the city are 
as dead as the glories of Athens. Five millions of dollars 
could not restore the ruin of these four past years ; and that 
sum is so far beyond the command of the city as to seem 
the boundless measure of immeasurable wealth. Yet, after 
all, Charleston was Charleston because of the hearts of its 
people. St. Michael's Church, they held, was the centre of 
the universe ; and the aristocracy of the city were the very 
elect of God's children on earth. One marks now how few 
young men there are, how generally the young women are 
dressed in black. The flower of their proud aristocracy is 
buried on scores of battle-fields. If it were possible to 
restore the broad acres of crumbUng ruins to their foretime 
style and uses, there would even then be but the dead body 
of Charleston. . . . 

Of Massachusetts men, some are already in business here, 

336 



No 



127] Southern Conditions 337 



and others came on to " see the lay of the land," as one 
of them said. "That's all right," observed an ex-Rebel 
captain in one of our after-dinner chats, — " that's all right ; 
let's have Massachusetts and South CaroHna brought 
together, for they are the only two States that amount 
to anything." . . . 

There are many Northern men here already, though one 
cannot say that there is much Northern society, for the 
men are either without families or have left them at home. 
Walking out yesterday with a former Charlestonian, — a man 
who left here in the first year of the war and returned soon 
after our occupation of the city, — he pointed out to me the 
various " Northern houses " ; and I shall not exaggerate if I 
say that this classification appeared to include at least half 
the stores on each of the principal streets. " The presence 
of these men," said he, " was at first very distasteful to our 
people, and they are not hked any too well now ; but we 
know they are doing a good work for the city," 

I fell into some talk with him concerning the political 
situation, and found him of bitter spirit toward what he was 
pleased to denominate " the infernal radicals." When I 
asked him what should be done, he answered : " You 
Northern people are making a great mistake in your treat- 
ment of the South. We are thoroughly whipped ; we give 
up slavery forever ; and now we want you to quit reproaching 
us. Let us back into the Union, and then come down here 
and help us build up the country." . . . 

Business is reviving slowly, though perhaps the more 
surely. The resident merchants are mostly at the bottom 
of the ladder of prosperity. They have idled away the 
summer in vain regrets for vanished hopes, and most of them 
are only just now beginning to wake to the new hfe. Some 
have already been North for goods, but more are preparing 
to go ; not heeding that, while they vacillate with laggard 
time, Northern men are springing in with hands swift to catch 



No. 9 ; Con- 
temporaries, 
IV, ch. 

See above. 
Nos. 35, 94- 
loi, 116, 119, 
124. 



338 



Reconstruction [1865 



opportunity. It pains me to see the apathy and indifference 
that so generally prevails ; but the worst feature of the 
situation is, that so many young men are not only idle, but 
give no promise of being otherwise in the immediate future. 
Many of the stores were more or less injured by the 
shelling. A few of these have been already repaired, and 
are now occupied, — very likely by Northern men. A 
■ couple of dozen, great and small, are now in process of 
repair ; and scores stand with closed shutters or gaping 
doors and windows. . . . Rents of eligible store-rooms are 
at least from one fourth to one third higher than before the 
war, and resident business men say only Northern men who 
intend staying but a short time can afford to pay present 
prices. . . . 
" March to It would seem that it is not clearly understood how 

1864''^^' thoroughly Sherman's army destroyed everything in its 

line of march, — destroyed it without questioning who 
suffered by the action. That this wholesale destruction 
was often without orders, and often against most positive 
orders, does not change the fact of destruction. The Rebel 
leaders were, too, in their way, even more wanton, and just 
as thorough as our army in destroying property. They did 
not burn houses and barns and fences as we did ; but, during 
the last three months of the war, they burned immense 
quantities of cotton and rosin. 

The action of the two armies put it out of the power of 
men to pay their debts. The values and the bases of value 
were nearly all destroyed. Money lost about everything it 
had saved. Thousands of men who were honest in purpose 
have lost everything but honor. The cotton with which they 
meant to pay their debts has been burned, and they are 
without other means. What is the part of wisdom in respect 
to such men ? It certainly cannot be to strip them of the 
last remnant. Many of them will pay in whole or in part, 
if proper consideration be shown them. It is no question 



No. 128] A Negro School 



339 



of favor to any one as a favor, but a pure question of 
business, — how shall the commercial relations of the two 
sections be re-established? In determining it, the actual 
and exceptional condition of the State with respect to 
property should be constantly borne in mind. . . . 

That Rebellion sapped the foundations of commercial 
integrity in the State is beyond question. That much of 
the Northern indebtedness will never be paid is also beyond 
question. . . . 

The city i- under thorough military rule ; but the iron 
hand rests very lightly. Soldiers do police duty, and there 
is some nine-o'clock regulation ; but, so far as I can learn, 
anybody goes anywhere at all hours of the night without 
molestation. " There never was such good order here 
before," said an old colored man to me. The main street 
is swept twice a week, and all garbage is removed at sun- 
rise. " If the Yankees was to stay here always and keep 
the city so clean, I don't reckon we'd have ' yellow jack ' 
here any more," was a remark I overheard on the street. 
" Now is de fust time sence I can 'mem'er when brack men 
was safe in dc street afer nightfall," stated the negro tailor 
in whose shop I sat an hour yesterday. 

Sidney Andrews, The Soicth since the War (Boston, 1866), 1-8 
Passi7n. 



128. A Negro School (1862) 

ONE bright November morning I started to take pos- 
session of my contraband school. . . . 
The schoolhouse to which I was appointed was a rough, 
wooden building standing on palmetto posts two or three 
feet from the ground, with an open piazza on one side. 
When I first came in sight of this building, the piazza was 
crowded with children, all screaming and chattering like a 



By Eliza- 
beth Hyde 

BOTUME, 

one of the 
first teachers 
of the negro 
on the Caro- 
lina coast, 
and one who 
knows the 
South from 
personal ac- 
quaintance 



340 



Reconstruction 



[1862 



both before 
and after the 
war. Her 
narrative 
shows her to 
be a keen ob- 
server and an 
accurate re- 
porter. It 
deals with 
the contra- 
bands, 
chiefly the 
women and 
children, 
telling of 
their escape 
from the war 
and of the 
attempts to 
educate 
them. 
Though 
marked by 
some confu- 
sion of ar- 
rangement, it 
seems to be 
founded on 
a contempo- 
rary journal. 
— On the 
negroes in 
reconstruc- 
tion, see Con- 
temporaries, 
IV, ch. 



flock of jays and blackbirds in a quarrel. But as soon 
as they saw me they all gave a whoop and a bound and 
disappeared. When I reached the door there was no living 
thing to be seen ; all was literally " as still as a mouse ; " so 
I inspected my new quarters while waiting for my forces. 

There was one good sized room without partitions ; it was 
not ceiled, but besides the usual heavy board shutters its six 
windows were glazed. This was a luxury which belonged 
to but it^ of the school-buildings. Indeed, these glazed 
windows had been held up to me as a marked feature in my 
new location. 

The furniture consisted of a few wooden benches, a tall 
pine desk with a high office stool, one narrow blackboard 
leaning against a post, and a huge box stove large enough 
to warm a Puritan meeting-house in the olden times. The 
pipe of the stove was put through one window. 

... I believe this was the first building ever erected 
exclusively for a colored school. ... All the " contraband 
schools " were at that time kept in churches, or cotton-barns, 
or old kitchens. Some teachers had their classes in tents. 

Inspection over, I vigorously rang a little cracked hand- 
bell which I found on the desk. Then I saw several pairs 
of bright eyes peering in at the open door. But going 
towards them, there was a general scampering, and I could 
only see a head or a foot disappearing under the house. 
Again I rang the bell, with the same result, until I began to 
despair of getting my scholars together. When I turned my 
back they all came out. When I faced about they darted 
off. In time, however, I succeeded in capturing one small 
urchin, who howled vociferously, "O Lord! O Lord!" 
This brought out the others, who seemed a little scared and 
much amused. I soon reassured my captive, so the rest 
came in. Then I tried to " seat " them, which was about 
as easy as keeping so many marbles in place on a smooth 
floor. Going towards half a dozen little fellows huddled 



No. 128] A Negro School 341 

together on one bench, they simultaneously darted down 
under the seat, and scampered off on their hands and feet 
to a corner of the room, looking very much like a family of 
frightened kittens. ... I " halted " the rest, and got them 
on to their feet and into their seats. Then I looked them 
over. . . . 

All these children were black as ink and as shy as wild 
animals. ... I tried in vain to fix upon some distinguish- 
ing mark by which I might know one from another. Some 
of these children had been in a school before, but they were 
afraid of white people, and especially of strangers. As they 
said of a teacher on a subsequent occasion, " Us ain't know 
she." . . . 

... In time, after some more skirmishing, the little gang 
before me was brought into a degree of order. They 
listened, apparently, with open mouths and staring eyes 
to what I had to say. But I soon discovered my words 
were like an unknown tongue to them. I must first know 
something of their dialect in order that we might understand 
each other. 

Now I wished to take down the names of these children ; 
so I turned to the girl nearest me and said, *' What is your 
name ? " 

" It is Phyllis, ma'am." 

" But what is your other name ? " 

"Only Phyllis, ma'am." 

I then explained that we all have two names ; but she still 
replied, " Nothing but Phyllis, ma'am." 

Upon this an older girl started up and exclaimed, " Pshaw, 
gal! What's you'm title?" whereupon she gave the name 
of her old master. 

After this each child gave two names, most of them funny 
combinations. Sometimes they would tell me one thing, 
and when asked to repeat it, would say something quite 
different. . . . 



342 



Reconstruction 



[1865 



I thought of Adam's naming the animals, and wondered 
if he had been as much puzzled as I. Certainly he gave out 
the names at first hand, and had no conflicting incongruities 
to puzzle him. In time I enrolled fifteen names, the number 
present. 

The next morning I called the roll, but no one answered, 
so I was obliged to go around again and make out a new list. 
I could not distinguish one from another. They looked like 
so many peas in a pod. The woolly heads of the girls and 
boys looked just alike. All wore indiscriminately any cast- 
off garments given them, so it was not easy to tell " which 
was which." Were there twenty-five new scholars, or 
only ten? 

The third morning it was the same work over again. 
There were forty children present, many of them large 
boys and girls. I had already a hst of over forty names. 
Amongst these were most of the months of the year and 
days of the week, besides a number of Pompeys, Cudjos, 
Sambos, and Rhinas, and Rosas and Floras. I now wrote 
down forty new names, and I began to despair of ever 
getting regulated. . . . 

Elizabeth Hyde Botume, First Days amongst the Contrabands 
(Boston, 1893), 41-47 _^fljj/;«. ' 



By Robert 
Edward 
Lee (1807- 
1870), com- 
manding 
general of the 
armies of the 
Confederacy. 
After the war 
Lee retired to 
private Hfe, 
taking a posi- 
tion as presi- 



1 29. A Southerner's Advice on 
Reconstruction (1865) 



I 



HAVE received your letter of the 23d ult. 
[August, 1865], and in reply will state the 
course I have pursued under circumstances similar to your 
own, and will leave you to judge of its propriety. Like 
yourself, I have, since the cessation of hostilities, advised 



No. 129] A Southerner's Advice 343 



all with whom I have conversed on the subject, who come 
within the terms of the President's proclamations, to take 
the oath of allegiance, and accept in good faith the amnesty 
offered. But I have gone further, and have recommended 
to those who were excluded from their benefits, to make 
application under the proviso of the proclamation of the 
29th of May, to be embraced in its provisions. Both 
classes, in order to be restored to their former rights and 
privileges, were required to perform a certain act, and I do 
not see that an acknowledgment of fault is expressed in one 
more than the other. The war being at an end, the Southern 
States having laid down their arms, and the questions at issue 
between them and the Northern States having been decided, 
I beheve it to be the duty of every one to unite in the 
restoration of the country, and the reestablishment of peace 
and harmony. These considerations governed me in the 
cdunsels I gave to others, and induced me on the 13th of 
June to make appHcation to be included in the terms of the 
amnesty proclamation. I have not received an answer, 
and cannot inform you what has been the decision of the 
President. But, whatever that may be, I do not see how 
the course I have recommended and practised can prove 
detrimental to the former President of the Confederate 
States. It appears to me that the allayment of passion, the 
dissipation of prejudice, and the restoration of reason, will 
alone enable the people of the country to acquire a true 
knowledge and form a correct judgment of the events of 
the past four years. It will, I think, be admitted that 
Mr. Davis has done nothing more than all the citizens of 
the Southern States, and should not be held accountable for 
acts performed by them in the exercise of what had been 
considered by them unquestionable right. I have too exalted 
an opinion of the American people to beheve that they will 
consent to injustice ; and it is only necessary, in my opinion, 
that truth should be known, for the rights of every one to be 



dent of 
Washington 
College at 
Lexington, 
Virginia, 
now Wash- 
ington and 
Lee Uni- 
versity, and 
lent his influ- 
ence to the 
work of rec- 
onciling the 
South to the 
new situa- 
tion. This 
letter, written 
to a private 
person, 
throws the 
best light on 
the attitude 
which he had 
adopted and 
which he 
sought to in- 
duce others 
to adopt. — 
On Lee, see 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, No. 
. — On the 
condition of 
the Southern 
whites, see 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, ch. 



344 



Reconstruction 



[1865 



(Entered, Secured. I know of no surer way of eliciting the truth than 

Act°of Con-° by burying contention with the war. . . . 

grass, in the 

year 1874, by Reverend J. William Jones, Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, 

fnd'c'om-"" ^"^ Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee (New York, 1875), 205-206. 
pany.) 



By Thad- 
DEUS Ste- 
vens (1792- 
1868). From 
March, 1859, 
to his death 
in August, 
1868, he was 
one of the 
leaders of the 
most ad- 
vanced wing 
of the Repub- 
licans in the 
national 
House of 
Representa- 
tives. He 
initiated and 
had a large 
share in the 
adoption of 
the Four- 
teenth 

Amendment, 
and, as chair- 
man of the 
House Com- 
mittee on Re- 
construction, 
reported the 
bill dividing 
theSouthinto 
five military 
districts until 
it should 
adopt consti- 
tutions grant- 
ing suffrage 
and equal 
rights to 
negroes. In 
a speech of 
February 24, 



130. Congressional Reconstruction (1865) 



K 



O one doubts, that the late rebel States have 
lost their constitutional relations to the Union, 
and are incapable of representation in Congress, except by 
permission of the Government. It matters but little, with 
this admission, whether you call them States out of the 
Union, and now conquered territories, or assert that because 
the Constitution forbids them to do what they did do, that 
they are therefore only dead as to all national and political 
action, and will remain so until the Government shall breathe 
into them the breath of hfe anew and permit them to occupy 
their former position. In other words, that they are not out 
of the Union, but are only dead carcasses lying within the 
Union. In either case, it is very plain that it requires the 
action of Congress to enable them to form a State govern- 
ment and send representatives to Congress. Nobody, I 
beheve, pretends that with their old constitutions and frames 
of government they can be permitted to claim their old 
rights under the Constitution. They have torn their con- 
stitutional States into atoms, and built on their foundations 
fabrics of a totally different character. Dead men cannot 
raise themselves. Dead States cannot restore their own 
existence "as it was." Whose especial duty is it to do it? 
In whom does the Constitution place the power? Not in the 
judicial branch of Government, for it only adjudicates and 
does not prescribe laws. Not in the Executive, for he only 
executes and cannot make laws. Not in the Commander- 



No. 130] 



By Congress 



345 



in-Chief of the armies, for he can only hold them under 
military rule until the sovereign legislative power of the 
conqueror shall give them law. . . . 

Congress alone can do it. But Congress does not mean 
the Senate,, or the House of Representatives, and President, 
all acting severally. Their joint action constitutes Con- 
gress. . . . Congress must create States and declare when 
they are entitled to be represented. Then each House 
must judge whether the members presenting themselves 
from a recognized State possess the requisite qualifications 
of age, residence, and citizenship ; and whether the election 
and returns are according to law. The Houses, separately, 
can judge of nothing else. It seems amazing that any man 
of legal education could give it any larger meaning. 

It is obvious from all this that the first duty of Congress 
is to pass a law declaring the condition of these outside or 
defunct States, and providing proper civil governments for 
them. Since the conquest they have been governed by 
martial law. MiHtary rule is necessarily despotic, and ought 
not to exist longer than is absolutely necessary. As there 
are no symptoms that the people of these provinces will be 
prepared to participate in constitutional government for 
some years, I know of no arrangement so proper for them 
as territorial governments. There they can learn the princi- 
ples of freedom and eat the fruit of foul rebellion. Under 
such governments, while electing members to the Territorial 
Legislatures, they will necessarily mingle with those to whom 
Congress shall extend the right of suffrage. In Territories 
Congress fixes the qualifications of electors ; and I know of 
no better place nor better occasion for the conquered rebels 
and the conqueror to practice justice to all men, and accus- 
tom themselves to make and obey equal laws. . . . 

According to my judgment they ought never to be recog- 
nized as capable of acting in the Union, or of being counted 
as valid States, until the Constitution shall have been so 



1868, he pro- 
posed the 
impeach- 
ment of 
Johnson, was 
one of the 
committee of 
seven to pre- 
pare the arti- 
cles, and was 
chairman of 
the board of 
managers 
appointed to 
conduct the 
trial. This 
extract, from 
a speech of 
December 
18, 1865, well 
illustrates his 
extreme Re- 
publican the- 
ory. — On 
Stevens, see 
Arnericau 
Orations, IV, 
458. — On 
congres- 
sional recon- 
struction, see 
No. 127 
above. 



346 



Reconstruction 



[1865-1866 



amended as to make it what its framers intended ; and so 
as to secure perpetual ascendency to the party of the Union ; 
and so as to render our republican Government firm and 
stable forever. The first of those amendments is to change 
the basis of representation among the States from Federal 
numbers to actual voters. . . . 

But this is not all that we ought to do before these invet- 
erate rebels are invited to participate in our legislation. 
We have turned, or are about to turn, loose four million 
slaves without a hut to shelter them or a cent in their 
pockets. The infernal laws of slavery have prevented them 
from acquiring an education, understanding the commonest 
laws of contract, or of managing the ordinary business of 
life. This Congress is bound to provide for them until they 
can take care of themselves. If we do not furnish them with 
homesteads, and hedge them around with protective laws ; 
if we leave them to the legislation of their late masters, we 
had better have left them in bondage. Their condition 
would be worse than that of our prisoners at Anderson- 
ville. If we fail in this great duty now, when we have the 
power, we shall deserve and receive the execration of history 
and of all future ages. 

Congressional Globe, 39 Cong., i sess. (Washington, 1866), Part 
I, y2-7^ passim. 



By General 
Oliver 
Otis How- 
ard (1830- 
), who 
served with 
distinction 
during the 
war, and 
after its close, 
from May, 



131. A Military Governor in Louisiana 
(1865-1866) 

IN no other State have there arisen so many difficult 
questions with reference to labor, the status of the 
freedmen, and the power of military authorities. The assist- 
ant commissioner of the State has been able to give general 



No. 131] 



Louisiana 



347 



satisfaction to the whites and freedmen, and aid in the resto- 
ration of law and order. Harmonious relations have existed 
between the State officials and bureau officers, which has 
materially aided the administration of the bureau. I am 
sorry to report a lack of hearty co-operation on the part of 
the municipal authorities of New Orleans with the plans of 
General Baird for the employment, protection, and educa- 
tion of the freedmen. Much that is to be regretted with 
reference to the present condition of colored people of New 
Orleans can be traced to this cause. 

A large amount of abandoned property was held by the 
bureau officer during the year 1865, but was restored as 
rapidly as claimants could present proper proofs of owner- 
ship and loyalty. This property, consisting of large planta- 
tions and city property, furnished all the funds necessary to 
carry on the affairs of the bureau [.] As nearly all of this 
property was restored prior to January i, 1866, this source 
of revenue has ceased. . . . 

General Baird reports that " outrages upon freedmen 
reported from the distant parishes of the State remain 
uncorrected for want of adequate military force to make 
arrests. This condition of affairs can only be remedied by 
force. The perpetrators of the outrages are lawless and 
irresponsible men, the terror of property holders and labor- 
ers. They are countenanced by the community, either 
through sympathy or fear." 

General Sheridan says : " Homicides are frequent in some 
locahties ; sometimes they are investigated by a coroner's 
jury, which justifies the act and releases the perpetrator ; 
in other instances, when the proof comes to the knowledge 
of an agent of the bureau, the parties are held to bail in a 
nominal sum, for appearance at the next term of court, but 
the trial of a white man for the killing of a freedman can, in 
the existing state of society in this State, be nothing more or 
less than a farce." 



1865, to July, 
1874, was 
commis- 
sioner of the 
Freedman's 
Bureau at 
Washington. 
General 
Sheridan, 
whom he 
largely 
quotes in his 
report, had a 
low opinion 
of the politi- 
cians of Lou- 
isiana and 
Texas, and 
was in favor 
of strong 
measures. 
From July 17 
to August 15, 

1866, Sheri- 
dan was in 
charge of the 
military divi- 
sion of the 
Gulf, and 
later, by the 
act of March 
2, 1867, di- 
viding the 
ten Southern 
States into 
five military 
districts, he 
was put in 
command of 
the fifth dis- 
trict, which 
included 
Louisiana 
and Texas. 

Baird was 
assistant 
commis- 
sioner of 
Louisiana. 



348 



Reconstruction [ises-isee 



I regret that the reports of ofificers of the bureau reveal 
such a bad state of society. It will be impossible for the 
mihtary authorities to restore order and remedy the evils 
complained of by General Sheridan without an increase of 
the number of troops in the State. . . . 

General Baird says : " The ' civil rights bill ' has gone into 
operation in this State, and is having a good effect, restrain- 
ing those who are disposed to set United States laws at 
defiance or to treat them with contempt. Several magistrates 
are under arrest for violating its provisions. The machinery 
for the execution of the law is yet in a very imperfect con- 
dition." 

General Sheridan reports : " That the location of home- 
steads by the freedmen is progressing favorably, but it is a 
question whether they will be allowed to remain peaceably 
upon the lands selected." The agent for the location of 
homesteads reports depredations on the public lands, such 
as cutting timber, &c., by white citizens. Circumstances 
beyond the control of the bureau have greatly injured 
the once prosperous schools of this State. Enemies of the 
bureau and its officers have made a general attack upon the 
school administration. General Baird, being without money, 
was obliged to suspend all the public schools, promising that 
as soon as possible they should commence again. The 
colored people seeing their public schools closed did not 
abandon the education of their children, but opened a large 
number of private schools. A tax system was devised by 
which the people were to support their own education. For 
many reasons this tax became oppressive, and was never 
popular. The schools rapidly decreased, and a chaotic state 
ensued from which it took time to recover. 

General Sheridan reports, under date of September 30, a 
great increase of interest, and the prospect of flourishing 
schools this autumn and winter. The present number of 
schools is 73 ; teachers, 90 ; scholars, 3,389. 



No. 132] 



Fail 



ure 



349 



The number of irregular and private schools cannot at 
present be ascertained, but they are numerous. 

General Sheridan reports that the total suspension of the 
issue of rations will cause much distress among the people 
that most need aid, viz, widows and famiUes of soldiers 
killed in the army, and that the cotton and corn crop is 
tnearly an entire failure in some parishes. He has found it 
impossible to induce [t]he State authorities to provide for 
either white or black paupers. 

The number of rations issued in this State from June i, 
1865, to September i, 1866, (one year and three months,) 
was as follows: Aggregate, 612,788 — to whites, 157,491; 
to freedmen, 455,290; average rations per month, 40,852; 
average freedmen and refugees assisted daily, 1,362, 

Report of the Secretary of War, House Executive Doaimetits, 
39 Cong., 2 sess. No. i (Washington, 1867), III, 742-744 
passim. 



Tnearly = 
nearly ; by a 
printer's 
error in the 
original, the 
" t " evidently 
slipped from 
its proper 
place in the 
word "the" 
below. 



132. Failure of Reconstruction (1871) 

I PROPOSE to lay aside all partisanship, and simply to 
state facts as I conceive them to exist. Let us look at 
our State when the reconstruction acts first took effect in 
1868. 

A social revolution had been accomphshed — an entire 
reversal of the political relations of most of our people had 
ensued. The class which formerly held all the poHtical 
power of our State were stripped of all. 

The class which had formerly been less than citizens, with 
no political power or social position, were made the sole 
depositaries of the pohtical power of the State. I refer 
now to practical results, not to theories. The numerical 
relations of the two races here were such that one race, 



By Daniel 
Henry 
Chamber- 
lain (1835- 

).a 
Massachu- 
setts man 
who served 
in the Union 
army, and 
after the war, 
in 1866, re- 
moved to 
South Caro- 
lina and 
became a cot- 
ton planter. 
From i868 to 
1872 he was 
attorney-gen- 
eral of South 
Carolina, 
and in 1875 
was elected 



350 



Reconstruction 



[187' 



governor of 
the State. 
His testi- 
mony is very 
interesting, 
coming as it 
does trom 
one who, if 
he were in- 
clined to be 
partial, would 
lean rather 
to the side 
of the na- 
tional gov- 
ernment. 



under the new laws, held absolute political control of the 
State. 

The attitude and action of both races under these new 
conditions, while not unnatural, was, as I must think, unwise 
and unfortunate. One race stood aloft and haughtily re- 
fused to seek the confidence of the race which was just 
entering on its new powers ; while the other race quickly 
grasped all the political power which the new order of 
things had placed within their reach. 

From the nature of the case, the one race were devoid of 
political experience, of all or nearly all education, and de- 
pended mainly for all these qualities upon those who, for 
the most part, chanced to have drifted here from other 
States, or who, in very rare instances, being former resi- 
dents of the State, now allied themselves with the other 
race. No man of common prudence, or who was even 
shghtly familiar with the working of social forces, could have 
then failed to see that the elements which went to compose 
the now dominant party were not of the kind which produce 
pubhc virtue and honor, or which could long secure even 
public order and peace. 

I make all just allowance for exceptional cases of indi- 
vidual character, but I say that the result to be expected, 
from the very nature of the situation in 1868, was that a 
scramble for office would ensue among the members of the 
party in power, which, again, from the nature of the case, 
must result in filling the offices of the State, local and gen- 
eral, with men of no capacity and little honesty or desire to 
really serve the public. 

The nation had approved the reconstruction measures, 
not because they seemed to be free of danger, nor because 
they were blind to the very grave possibilities of future evils, 
but in the hope that the one race, wearing its new laurels 
and using its new powers with modesty and forbearance, 
would gradually remove the prejudices and enlist the sym- 



No. 132] Failure 351 

pathies and cooperation of the other race, until a fair degree 
of pohtical homogeneity should be reached, and race lines 
should cease to mark the limits of pohtical parties. 

Three years have passed, and the result is — what? In- 
competency, dishonesty, corruption in all its forms, have 
" advanced their miscreated fronts," have put to flight the 
small remnant that opposed them, and now rules the party Error in 
which rules the State. ongma . 

You may imagine the chagrin with which I make this 
statement. Truth alone compels it. My eyes see it — all 
my senses testify to the startling and sad fact. I can never 
be indifferent to anything which touches the fair fame of 
that great national party to which all my deepest convictions 
attach me, and I repel the libel which the party bearing that 
name in this State is daily pouring upon us. I am a repub- 
lican by habit, by conviction, by association, but my repub- 
licanism is not, I trust, composed solely of equal parts of 
ignorance and rapacity. 

Such is the plain statement of the present condition of 
the dominant party of our State. 

What is the remedy ? That a change will come, and come 
speedily, let no man doubt. Corruption breeds its own kind. 
Ignorance rushes to its downfall. Close behind any political 
party which tolerates such quahties in its public representa- 
tives stalks the headsman. If the result is merely political 
disruption, let us be profoundly thankful. Let us make haste 
to prevent it from being social disruption — the sundering 
of all the bonds which make society and government possible. 

Charleston Daily Republican^ May 8, 1871 ; quoted in Testimony 
taken by the Joint Select Committee to inquire into the Condi- 
tion of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States. — South 
Carolina, Part II (Washington, 1872), IV, Appendix iv, 1250- 
1251. (This is the same as Senate Report, 42 Cong., 2 sess., 
No. 41, pt. 4.) 



CHAPTER XX — UNION RESTORED, 

1871-1885 



By Samuel 
Jones Til- 
den (1814- 
1886).* By 
1868 Tilden 
had come to 
be recog- 
nized as the 
leader of the 
Democratic 
party in New 
York State. 
The cele- 
brated ex- 
posure of the 
" Tweed 
Ring" ap- 
peared in the 
New York 
Times in 
July, 1871 ; 
but Tilden 
had taken a 
stand against 
this corrupt 
faction a year 
earlier 
through his 
decided op- 
position to 
the " Tweed 
charter." 
He also de- 
nounced the 
"side-part- 
ners" of 
Tweed, who, 
with the aid 
of the courts, 
were plun- 
dering the 
stock-holders 
of the Erie 
Railroad. — 



133- 



Iniquities of the Tweed Ring 
(1869-1871) 



THE Ring had its origin in the Board of Supervisors. 
That body was created by an Act passed in 1857 in 
connection with the charter of that year. The Act pro- 
vided that but six persons should be voted for by each 
elector, and twelve should be chosen. In other words, the 
nominees of the Republican and Democratic party caucuses 
should be elected. At the next session the term was ex- 
tended to six years. So we had a body composed of six 
Republicans and six Democrats, to change a majority of 
which you must control the primaries of both of the great 
National and State parties for four years in succession. 
Not an easy job, certainly ! . . . 

The Ring was doubly a Ring ; it was a Ring between the 
six Republican and the six Democratic supervisors. It soon 
grew to a Ring between the RepubHcan majority in Albany 
and the half-and-half supervisors, and a few Democratic 
officials of this city. 

The very definition of a Ring is that it encircles enough 
influential men in the organization of each party to control 
the action of both party machines, — men who in public 
push to extremes the abstract ideas of their respective 
parties, while they secretly join their hands in schemes for 
personal power and profit. 

The RepubUcan partners had the superior power. They 

* Copyright, 1885. 
352 



No. 133] The Tweed Ring 353 

could create such institutions as the Board of Supervisors, On the 
and could abolish them at will. They could extinguish s^^confem^' 
offices and substitute others ; change the laws which fix poraries, iv, 
their duration, functions, and responsibihties ; and nearly the period, 
always could invoke the executive power of removal. The ■^'"T';'"\v 
Democratic members, who in some city offices represented 191-420; 
the "firm" to the supposed prejudices of a local Demo- ries, W.^ch. 
cratic majority, were under the necessity of submitting to 
whatever terms the Albany legislators imposed ; and at 
length found out by experience, what they had not intel- 
lect to foresee, — that all real power was in Albany, They 
began to go there in person to share it. The lucrative city 
offices — subordinate appointments, which each head of 
department could create at pleasure, with salaries in his dis- 
cretion, distributed among the friends of the legislators ; 
contracts ; money contributed by city officials, assessed on 
their subordinates, raised by jobs under the departments, 
and sometimes taken from the city treasury — were the 
pabulum of corrupt influence which shaped and controlled 
all legislation. Every year the system grew worse as a gov- 
ernmental institution, and became more powerful and more 
corrupt. The executive departments gradually swallowed 
up all local powers, and themselves were mere deputies of 
legislators at Albany, on whom alone they were dependent. 
The Mayor and Common Council ceased to have much legal 
authority, and lost all practical influence. There was nobody 
to represent the people of the city ; there was no discussion, 
there was no publicity. Cunning and deceptive provisions 
of law concocted in the secrecy of the departments, com- 
missions, and bureaus, agreed upon in the lobbies at Albany 
between the city officials and the legislators or their go- 
betweens, appeared on the statute book after every session. 
In this manner all institutions of government, all taxation, 
all appropriations of money for our million of people were 
formed. For many years there was no time when a vote 



354 Union Restored [1869-1871 

at a city election would in any practical degree or manner 
affect the city government. 

The Ring became completely organized and matured on 
the I St of January, 1869, when Mr. A. Oakey Hall became 
mayor. Mr. Connolly had been comptroller two years 
earlier. Its power had already become great, but was as 
nothing compared with what it acquired on the 5 th of April, 
1870, by an Act which was a mere legislative grant of the 
offices, giving the powers of local government to individuals 
of the Ring for long periods, and freed from all accounta- 
bility, as if their names had been mentioned as grantees in 
the Bill. Its duration was through 1869, 1870, and 187 1, 
until its overthrow at the election of November, when it lost 
most of the senators and assemblymen from this city, and was 
shaken in its hold on the legislative power of the State. . . . 

In 1870, for the first time in four and twenty years, the 
Democrats had the law-making power. They had in the 
Senate just one vote, and in the Assembly seven votes, more 
than were necessary to pass a Bill, — if so rare a thing should 
happen as that every member was present and all should 
agree. This result brought more dismay than joy to the 
Ring. They had intrenched themselves in the legislative 
bodies against the people of this city. But the Democratic 
party was bound by countless pledges to restore local gov- 
ernment to the voting power of the people of the city. The 
Ring could trade in the lobbies at Albany, or with the half- 
and-half Supervisors in the mysterious chambers of that 
Board. They might even risk a popular vote on mayor, if 
secure in the departments which had all the patronage and 
which could usually elect their own candidate. But they 
had no stomach for a free fight over the whole government, 
at a separate election. 

Their motives were obvious, on a general view of human 
nature. None but the Ring then knew that in the secret 
recesses of the Supervisors, and other similar bureaus, were 



No. 134] The Tweed Ring 355 



hidden ten millions of bills largely fraudulent, and that, in 
the perspective, were eighteen other millions, nearly all 
fraudulent. . . . 

. . . Tweed was in his office until April, 1874; Connolly 
antil 1875, and Sweeney until 1875. They, with the mayor, 
were vested with the exclusive legal power of appropriating 
all moneys raised by taxes or by loans, and an indefinite 
authority to borrow. Practically, they held all power of 
municipal legislation and all power of expending as well 
as of appropriating moneys. . . . 

They wielded the enormous patronage of offices and con- 
tracts ; they swayed all the institutions of local government, 

— the local judiciary, the unhappily localized portion of the 
State judiciary, which includes the Circuit Courts, the Oyer 
and Terminers, the Special Terms and the General Terms, 

— in a word, everything below the Court of Appeals. They 
also controlled the whole machinery of elections. New 
York city, with its million of people, with its concentration 
of vast interests of individuals in other States and in foreign 
countries, with its conspicuous position before the world, 
had practically no power of self-government. It was ruled, 
and was to be ruled so long as the terms of these offices 
continued, — from four to eight years, — as if it were a con- 
quered province. The central source of all this power was 
Albany. The system emanated from Albany ; it could only 
be changed at Albany. . . . 

Samuel J. Tilden, Writings and Speeches (edited by John Bige- 
low, New York, Harper & Brothers. 1885), I, 560-582 passim. 



Tilden was 
the leading 
spirit in im- 
peachment 
proceedings 
against 
Judges Car- 
dozo and 
Barnard, 
tools of the 
Ring. 



134. Treaty of Washington (1871) 



By Caleb 

Gushing 

HE Treaty of Washington, whether it be regarded Cushing had 
in the light of its general spirit and object, of its ef^^iT'dM - 
particular stipulations, or of its relation to the high con- matic experi- 



T 



35^ 



Union Restored 



[1871 



ence. As 
American 
commis- 
sioner in 
China in 
1844, he ne- 
gotiated the 
first treaty 
between that 
country and 
the United 
States, and 
was later our 
Chinese min- 
ister. In 
1868 he was 
sent by the 
government 
to Bogota on 
a diplomatic 
mission. In 
1872 he was 
one of the 
council for 
the United 
States at the 
Geneva con- 
ference for 
the settle- 
ment of the 
Alabama 
claims. 
From 1874 to 
1877 he was 
minister to 
Spain. His 
Treaty of 
H 'asliington 
was pub- 
lished in 
1877. This 
extract is an 
example of a 
careful work 
written by a 
participant in 
a negotiation. 
— On the 
relations with 
England, see 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, oh. 



tracting parties, constitutes one of the most notable and 
interesting of all the great diplomatic acts of the present 
age. 

It disposes, in forty-three articles, of five different sub- 
jects of controversy between Great Britain and the United 
States, two of them European or imperial, three American 
or colonial, and some of them of such nature as most im- 
minently to imperil the precious peace of the two great 
English-speaking nations. 

Indeed, several of these objects of controversy are ques- 
tions coeval with the national existence of the United States, 
and which, if lost sight of occasionally in the midst of other 
pre-occupations of peace or war, yet continually came to 
the surface again from time to time to vex and disturb the 
good understanding of both Governments. Others of the 
questions, although of more modern date, incidents of our 
late Civil War, were all the more irritating, as being fresh 
wounds to the sensibility of the people of the United States. 

If, to all these considerations, be added the fact that 
negotiation after negotiation respecting these questions had 
failed to resolve them in a satisfactory manner, it will be 
readily seen how great was the diplomatic triumph achieved 
l)y the Treaty of Washington. 

It required peculiar inducements and agencies to accom- 
plish this great result. 

Prominent among the inducements were the pacific spirit 
of the President of the United States and the Queen of 
Great Britain, and of their respective Cabinets, and the 
sincere and heartfelt desire of a great majority of the people 
of both countries that no shadow of offense should be 
allowed any longer to linger on the face of their international 
relations. 

Great Britain, it is but just to her to say, if not confessedly 
conscious of wrong, yet, as being the party to whom wrong 
was imputed, did honorably and wisely make the decisive 



No. 134] Treaty of Washington 357 

advance toward reconciliation, by consenting to dispatch 
five Commissioners to Washington, there, under the eye of 
the President, to treat with five Commissioners on behalf of 
the United States. . . . 

On the part of the United States were five persons, — 
Hamilton Fish, Robert C. Schenck, Samuel Nelson, Eben- 
ezer Rockwood Hoar, and George H. Williams, — eminently 
fit representatives of the diplomacy, the bench, the bar, and 
the legislature of the United States : on the part of Great 
Britain, Earl De Grey and Ripon, President of the Queen's 
Council ; Sir Stafford Northcote, ex- Minister and actual 
Member of the House of Commons ; Sir Edward Thornton, 
the universally respected British Minister at Washington; 
Sir John Macdonald, the able and eloquent Premier of the 
Canadian Dominion ; and, in revival of the good old time, 
when learning was equal to any other title of pubHc honor, 
the Universities in the person of Professor Mountague 
Bernard. . . . 

In the face of many difficulties, the Commissioners, on 
the 8th of May, 1871, completed a treaty, which received 
the prompt approval of their respective Governments ; 
which has passed unscathed through the severest ordeal 
of a temporary misunderstanding between the two Govern- 
ments respecting the construction of some of its provisions ; 
which has already attained the dignity of a monumental act 
in the estimation of mankind ; and which is destined to 
occupy hereafter a lofty place in the history of the diplomacy 
and the international jurisprudence of Europe and America. 

Coming now to the analysis of this treaty, we find that 
Articles I. to XI. inclusive make provisions for the settle- 
ment by arbitration of the injuries alleged to have been 
suffered by the United States in consequence of the fitting 
out, arming, or equipping, in the ports of Great Britain, of 
Confederate cruisers to make war on the United States. 

Articles XII. to XVII. inclusive make provision to settle, 



358 



Union Restored 



[1876 



by means of a mixed Commission, all claims on either side 
for injuries by either Government to the citizens of the 
other during the late Civil War, other than claims growing 
out of the acts of Confederate cruisers disposed of by the 
previous articles of the Treaty. 

Articles XVIII. to XXV. inclusive contain provisions for 
the permanent regulation of the coast fisheries on the 
Atlantic shores of the United States and of the British 
Provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, 
and the Colony of Prince Edward's Island (including the 
Colony of Newfoundland by Article XXXII.). 

Articles XXVI. to XXXIII. inclusive provide for the 
reciprocal free navigation of certain rivers, including the 
River St. Lawrence ; for the common use of certain canals 
in the Canadian Dominion and in the United States ; for 
the free navigation of Lake Michigan ; for reciprocal free 
transit across the territory either of the United States or of 
the Canadian Dominion, as the case may be : the whole, 
subject to legislative provisions hereafter to be enacted by 
the several Governments. 

Articles XXXIV. to XLII. provide for determining by 
arbitration which of two different channels between Van- 
couver's Island and the main-land constitutes the true 
boundary-line in that region of the territories of the United 
States and Great Britain. 

Caleb Gushing, The Treaty of Washin^on (New York, Harper & 
Brothers, 1873), 9-i4 passim. 



By John 
Greenleaf 
Whittier, 
for whom see 
above, No. 
99. This was 
written for 
the opening 
of the Inter- 



135. "Centennial Hymn" (1876) 

I. 

OUR fathers' God ! from out whose hand 
The centuries fall like grains of sand. 
We meet to-day, united, free, 



No. 135] 



"Centennial Hymn" 359 



And loyal to our land and Thee, 
To thank Thee for the era done, 
And trust Thee for the opening one. 

II. 

Here, where of old, by Thy design. 
The fathers spake that word of Thine 
Whose echo is the glad refrain 
Of rended bolt and falling chain, 
To grace our festal time, from all 
The zones of earth our guests we call. 

III. 

Be with us while the New World greets 
The Old World thronging all its streets, 
Unveiling all the triumphs won 
By art or toil beneath the sun ; 
And unto common good ordain 
This rivalship of hand and brain. 

rv. 

Thou, who hast here in concord furled 
The war flags of a gathered world. 
Beneath our Western skies fulfil 
The Orient's mission of good-will. 
And, freighted with love's Golden Fleece, 
Send back its Argonauts of peace. 



national Ex- 
hibition at 
Philadelphia, 
May 10, 1876, 
to celebrate 
the centenary 
of American 
indepen- 
dence. The 
music for the 
hymn, which 
may be found 
in the Atlan- 
tic Monthly 
for June, 
1876, was 
composed by 
Professor 
John K. 
Paine of 
Harvard 
University. 



For art and labor met in truce. 
For beauty made the bride of use, 
We thank Thee ; but, withal, we crave 
The austere virtues strong to save, 



360 



Union Restored 



[1879 



The honor proof to place or gold, 
The manhood never bought nor sold ! 

VI. 

Oh make Thou us, through centuries long, 
In peace secure, in justice strong ; 
Around our gift of freedom draw 
The safeguards of Thy righteous law : 
And, cast in some diviner mould, 
Let the new cycle shame the old ! 

John Greenleaf Whittier, Complete Poetical Works (Household 
Edition, Boston, 1879), 4°9- 



From the 
New York 
World. 
This is an 
example of 
casual news- 
paper reports 
used as a 
source ; they 
give, with 
many inaccu- 
racies of de- 
tail, a picture 
of the actual 
workings of 
public affairs 
not to be had 
from official 
documents. 
The United 
States ceased 
to redeem its 
notes in gold 
Jan. I, 1862, 
and had 
never re- 
sumed till 
Jan. I, 1879. 
— On 



136. Resumption of Specie Payments 
(•8/9) 

THE DAY OF RESUMPTION. 

MUCH MORE GOLD RECEIVED THAN PAID OUT AT THE SUB- 
TREASURY — THE FLAGS UP, 

DUTIES PAID IN PAPER AND THE BANKS HANDING ALMOST NO 
COIN OVER THEIR COUNTERS. 

BEFORE the bankers and merchants had left their 
breakfast tables yesterday [Jan. 2, 1879] the city 
down town was in holiday attire. The national flag floated 
from every bank, from the Government buildings and the 
insurance buildings and hung in the windows or over the 
doors of private banking offices. The only exception to 
the general rule was at the Stock Exchange, whose bare 
flag pole poked up into the snow-storm until 2 p.m. This 



No. 136] Resumption 361 

neglect was noticed and criticised, and finally an enterpris- finances, see 
ing official of the Exchange ordered the flag hoisted, and 'orationsl 
hoisted it was. The flags were about the only outward and I v, 191-366; 

. Co7itempora- 

visible sign of Resumption Day. Hes, iv, ch. 

It had been fancied that at the opening of the Sub- 
Treasury rather an animated demand for gold would be 
developed, but it wasn't. The opening at 10 a.m. was 
greeted with a salute from the Navy-Yard. Every prepara- 
tion had been made to redeem United States notes in gold, 
but up to 10.30 only one solitary individual had come for 
gold and he wanted only $210. Up to 1.30 p.m., ^10,000 
had been disbursed and this included the payment to one >. 

person of ^5,000. He was a burly good-natured man, who 
was so glad to see gold again that he gave his bag an enthu- 
siastic whirl in the air and losing his balance let it drop on 
the stone floor. The cord that held the bag snapped and 
fi-om its golden throat the eagles rolled helter-skelter. He 
y picked them up with some concern, and counting his pile 
over again went up to the counter and said : " I guess you 
had better give me something with less ring in it, that 
doesn't roll so much." The cashier accommodated him 
with 15,000 in crisp legal-tender notes and cancelled that 
transaction. On coin obligations falling due most of the 
applicants preferred to be paid in currency. Up to 3 p.m. 
there had been redeemed in gold ^130,000 of United States 
notes, and $400,000 in gold had been taken in and paid for 
in United States notes, so thoroughly has gold resumed its 
old position. The associated banks deposited $300,000 in 
gold certificates and received in exchange that amount 
in Clearing-House certificates, representing hitherto legal 
tenders specially deposited in the vaults of the Sub-Treasury. 
An order was received from the Secretary of the Treasury 
discontinuing the redemption of called bonds at the Sub- 
Treasury. This restores the former order of things, the 
privilege of redeeming called bonds at the Sub-Treasury 



362 



Union Restored [1879 



having been enforced only when a recent attempt was made 
by speculators to lock up gold and disturb the money mar- 
ket. For the future called bonds will have to be sent to 
Washington for redemption. The Treasury ofificials were 
inclined to think that the Government will find great diffi- 
culty in getting rid of its gold coin. 

At the Clearing-House the clearances were unusually 
large, but in accordance with a recent resolution the gold 
exchanges were dropped. 

The Gold Room was open only for the closing of con- 
tracts entered into on December 31. The clerk shut the 
indicator which had gone to sleep at " 100," locked his desk 
at noon, and announced "This shop is closed henceforward." 
Not a transaction was placed upon the record book all day. 
The gold clearances were made for the last time at the 
Bank of the State of New York and included only the 
unsettled transactions of the Gold Room on December 31. 

At the Custom-House the first payment of duties made 
was made in three $1,000 legal-tender notes. The Custom- 
House officials will continue to take gold and silver cer- 
tificates until all which are outstanding are in. They will 
continue to make up their accounts in detail, giving the 
amount received in gold and silver certificates, gold and 
silver coin and legal-tender notes. Only one wagon was 
required to take the coin received yesterday to the Sub- 
Treasury — usually five have been needed. The total re- 
ceipts for duties reached $194,000, distributed as follows: 
Gold certificates $30,000; silver certificates $26,000; gold 
coin $35,000; silver coin $1,000; and United States notes 
$102,000. . . . 

SOME GRUMBLING IN WASHINGTON. . . . 

Quite a number of people came with greenbacks expect- 
ing that they would get the gold for them, ignorant of the 



i 



No. 137] 



Civil Service 



363 



fact that the Government would redeem its notes only in 
New York. A member of Congress from the West planked 
down a fifty-dollar bill and said : " Give me fifty one-dollar 
gold pieces." His attention was called to the law, which 
says that the Treasury shall redeem its notes in sums of 
fifty dollars and upwards at the sub-Treasury in New York. 

" Don't you resume everywhere ? " he asked in aston- 
ishment. 

"We do not," said the teller. 

" You ought to," he asserted authoritatively. " As soon 
as Congress reassembles I will see to it that the necessary 
legislation is enacted that will compel Mr. Sherman to redeem 
United States notes whenever presented at any branch of 
the Department." 

New York World, January 3, 1879, p. i. 



137. Workings of Civil Service Reform 

(1881) 



A 



VITAL and enduring reform in administra- 
tive methods, although it be but a return to 
the constitutional intention, can be accomphshed only by 
the commanding impulse of public opinion. Permanence is 
secured' by law, not by individual pleasure. But in this 
country law is only formulated public opinion. Reform of 
the Civil Service does not contemplate an invasion of the 
constitutional prerogative of the President and the Senate, 
nor does it propose to change the Constitution by statute. 
The whole system of the Civil Service proceeds, as I said, 
from the President, and the object of the reform movement 
is to enable him to fulfil the intention of the Constitution by 
revealing to him the desire of the country through the action 



By George 
William 
Curtis 
(1824-1892). 
Although 
Curtis was 
editor of a 
poHtical 
magazine, 
Harper's 
Weekly, and 
took an 
active inter- 
est in current 
issues, he 
never sought 
political 
office. He 
was placed 
by General 
Grant on a 
commission 
to draw up 
rules for the 
regulation of 
the civil 



^ 



bh^ 



c^ 



^ -I 



3^4 



Union Restored 



[1881 



service, and 
under his 
guidance the 
national 
Civil Service 
Reform 
League was 
established 
in 1881.— 
On Curtis, 
see American 
Orafiojts, IV, 
478. — On the 
reform, see 
American 
Orations, IV, 
400-420 ; 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, 
No. 



of its authorized representatives. When the ground-swell of 
public opinion lifts Congress from the rocks, the President 
will gladly float with it into the deep water of wise and 
patriotic action. . . . 

The root of the complex evil ... is personal favoritism. 
This produces congressional dictation, senatorial usurpation, 
arbitrary removals, interference in elections, political assess- 
ments, and all the consequent corruption, degradation, and 
danger that experience has disclosed. The method of 
refonn, therefore, must be a plan of selection for appoint- 
ment which makes favoritism impossible. The general feel- 
ing undoubtedly is that this can be accomplished by a fixed 
limited term. But the terms of most of the offices to which 
the President and the Senate appoint, and upon which the 
myriad minor places in the service depend, have been fixed 
and limited for sixty years, yet it is during that very period 
that the chief evils of personal patronage have appeared. . . . 

If, then, legitimate cause for removal ought to be de- 
termined in public as in private business by the respon- 
sible appointing power, it is of the highest public necessity 
that the exercise of that power should be made as absolutely 
honest and independent as possible. But how can it be 
made honest and independent if it is not protected so far as 
practicable from the constant bribery of selfish interest and 
the illicit solicitation of personal influence ? The experience 
of our large public patronage offices proves conclusively that 
the cause of the larger number of removals is not dishonesty 
or incompetency ; it is the desire to make vacancies to fill. 
This is the actual cause, whatever cause may be assigned. 
The removals would not be made except for the pressure 
of politicians. But those politicians would not press for 
removals if they could not secure the appointment of their 
favorites. Make it impossible for them to secure appoint- 
ment, and the pressure would instantly disappear and 
arbitrary removal cea^e. 



No. 137] Civil Service 365 

So long, therefore, as we permit minor appointments to 
be made by mere personal influence and favor, a fixed 
limited term and removal during that term for cause only 
would not remedy the evil, because the incumbents would 
still be seeking influence to secure reappointment, and the 
aspirants doing the same to replace them. Removal under 
plea of good cause would be as wanton and arbitrary as it is 
now, unless the power to remove were intrusted to some 
other discretion than that of the superior officer, and in that 
case the struggle for reappointment and the knowledge that 
removal for the term was practically impossible would totally 
demoralize the service. To make sure, then, that removals 
shall be made for legitimate cause only, we must provide that 
appointment shall be made only for legitimate cause. . . . 

. . . The reform ... is essentially the people's reform. 
With the instinct of robbers who run with the crowd and 
lustily cry " Stop thief ! " those who would make the pubUc 
service the monopoly of a few favorites denounce the deter- 
mination to open that service to the whole people as a plan 
to establish an aristocracy. The huge ogre of patronage, 
gnawing at the character, the honor, and the life of the 
country, grimly sneers that the people cannot help them- 
selves and that nothing can be done. But much greater 
things have been done. Slavery was the Giant Despair of 
many good men of the last generation, but slavery was over- 
thrown. If the spoils system, a monster only less threaten- 
ing than slavery, be unconquerable, it is because the country 
has lost its convictions, its courage, and its common-sense. 
" I expect," said the Yankee as he surveyed a stout antago- 
nist, " I expect that you're pretty ugly, but I cal'late I'm 
a darned sight uglier." I know that patronage is strong, but 
I believe that the American people are very much stronger. 

George William Curtis, Orations and Addresses (edited by 
Charles Eliot Norton, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1894), 
II, 186-196 passim. 



366 



Union Restored 



[1891 



By Thomas 
Jefferson 
"Morgan 
(1839- ). 
Commis- 
sioner of 
Indian Af- 
fairs under 
President 
Harrison 
(1889-1893). 
The Indian 
question has 
been a seri- 
ous and diffi- 
cult problem 
ever since the 
beginnings 
of civilization 
(see above, 
Nos. 9, 38, 
80). This is 
a summary 
of the matter 
by a man 
who had 
every oppor- 
tunity of 
knowing 
about it. — 
On the Indi- 
ans, see Con- 
temporaries, 
IV, ch. 



138. Our Treatment of the Indians (1891) 



T" 



HERE are certain things which the people of 
the United States will do well to remember. 

First. — The people of this country during the past hun- 
dred years have spent enormous sums of money in Indian 
wars. These wars have cost us vast quantities of treasure 
and multitudes of valuable lives, besides greatly hindering 
the development of the country, have destroyed great 
numbers of Indians, and have wrought upon them incalcu- 
lable disaster. The record which the nation has made for 
itself in this sanguinary conflict is not one to be proud of. 

Second. — So long as the Indians remain in their present 
condition, the possibility of other wars, costly and dreadful, 
hangs over us as a perpetual menace. The recent events 
have shown us how easy it is to spread alarm throughout our 
entire borders, and what fearful possibilities there are in 
store for us. 

Third. — Indian wars are unnecessary, and if we will but 
take proper precautions, they may be entirely avoided in 
the future. Justice, firmness, kindness, and wisdom will not 
only prevent future wars, but will promote the prosperity 
and welfare of the Indians, as well as of the entire common- 
wealth. 

Fourth. — We should remember that the circumstances 
surrounding the Indians are constantly, in many cases, aggra- 
vating the difficulties in the way of their procuring a proper 
supply of food ; and that unless wise precautions are taken 
at once to assist them in the development of the resources 
of the lands upon which they are compelled to live, they 
will be confronted more and more with the dread spectre 
of hunger, and we with that of war. We are called upon 
not so much to feed them, as we are to make it possible for 
them to feed themselves. 



No. 138] Indians 367 

Fifth. — The only possible solution of our Indian troubles 
lies in the suitable education of the rising generation. So 
long as the Indians remain among us aliens, speaking foreign 
languages, unable to communicate with us except through 
the uncertain and often misleading medium of interpreters, 
so long as they are ignorant of our ways, are superstitious 
and fanatical, they will remain handicapped in the struggle 
for existence, will be an easy prey to the medicine man and 
the false prophet, and will be easily induced, by reason of 
real or imaginary wrongs, to go upon the war-path. An 
education that will give them the mastery of the English 
language, train their hands to useful industries, awaken 
within them ambition for civilized ways, and develop a con- 
sciousness of power to achieve honorable places for them- 
selves, and that arouses within them an earnest and abiding 
patriotism, will make of them American citizens, and render 
future conflicts between them and the Government im- 
possible. 

Sixth. — Let it be especially remembered that the recent 
troubles, deplorable as they have been, have been very 
small and insignificant compared with what they might have 
been; and that this has been brought about largely by the 
influence exerted upon the Indians through the schools of 
learning which have been estabUshed, and have already 
accomphshed so much for their enlightenment and elevation. 
The influence for good exerted by the great school at Car- 
lisle alone, throughout the whole country, has been beyond 
estimate, and has repaid the Government many times over 
every dollar that has been put into that institution. 

Seventh. — It should be remembered that the time for 
making provision for the education of the entire body of 
Indian youth is now, and that any delay or postponement 
in the matter is hazardous and unwise. 

Eighth. — In our judgment of the Indians and of the 
difficulties of the Indian question, we should remember that 



368 



Union Restored [isgx 



the most perplexing element in the problem is not the In- 
dian, but the white man. The white man furnishes the 
Indians with arms and ammunition ; the white man provides 
him with whiskey ; the white man encroaches upon his 
reservation, robs him of his stock, defrauds him of his prop- 
erty, invades the sanctity of his home, and treats him with 
contempt, thus arousing within the Indian's breast those 
feelings of a sense of wrong, and dishonor, and wounded 
manhood that prepares him to vindicate his honor and 
avenge his wrongs. 

In the late troubles in Dakota, the wrongs and outrages 
inflicted upon the Indians have vastly exceeded those in- 
flicted by them upon the whites. 

Ninth. — We should not forget that the prime object to be 
aimed at is the civilization of the Indians and their absorp- 
tion into our national life, and that the agencies for the 
accomplishment of this work are not bayonets, but books. 
A school-house will do vastly more for the Indians than a 
fort. It is better to teach the Indian to farm than to teach 
him to fight. Civil policemen are in every way to be pre- 
ferred to Indian scouts, and we can much better afford to 
spend money in the employment of the Indians in useful 
industries, than to enroll them as soldiers in the army. 

Tenth. — Finally, let us not forget what progress has 
already been made in this work of civilization ; how potent 
are the forces now at work in preparing them for citizenship ; 
how hopeful is the outlook if we, as a people, simply do our 
duty. Let us keep our faith with the Indian ; protect him 
in his rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; 
provide for all his children a suitable English and industrial 
education ; throw upon them the responsibilities of citizen- 
ship, and welcome them to all the privileges of American 
freemen. 

The end at which we aim is that the American Indians 
shall become as speedily as possible Indian-Americans ; that 



No. 139] 



Americans 



369 



the savage shall become a citizen ; that the nomad shall 
cease to wander, and become a resident in a fixed habitation ; 
that hunting shall cease to be a necessity, and become a 
pastime ; that the smouldering fires of war shall become 
extinguished ; that tribal animosities shall end ; that the 
Indians, no longer joining in the "Sun Dance," or the 
" Ghost Dance," or other ceremonies in which they recount 
their wrongs and glory in the deeds of blood of their an- 
cestors, shall gather at their firesides to talk of the memory 
of their days in school, and assemble in their places of wor- 
ship to thank the Great Father above for the blessings of a 
Christian civilization vouchsafed to them in common with 
us all. 

Thomas J. Morgan, The Present Phase of the Indian Question 
(Boston, 1891), 18-21. 



139. Character of the Americans (1888) 

THE Americans are a good-natured people, kindly, 
helpful to one another, disposed to take a charitable 
view even of wrongdoers. Their anger sometimes flames 
up, but the fire is soon extinct. Nowhere is cruelty more 
abhorred. Even a mob lynching a horse thief in the West 
has consideration for the criminal, and will give him a good 
drink of whisky before he is strung up. Cruelty to slaves was 
unusual while slavery lasted, the best proof of which is the 
quietness of the slaves during the war when all the men and 
many of the boys of the South were serving in the Confed- 
erate armies. As everybody knows, juries are more lenient 
to offences of all kinds but one, offences against women, 
than they are anywhere in Europe. The Southern " rebels " 
were soon forgiven ; and though civil wars are proverbially 
bitter, there have been few struggles in which the comba- 



By James 
Bryce 
(1838- ). 
Mr. Bryce, a 
member of 
Parliament, 
and in the 
ministry of 
Great Britain 
under Glad- 
stone, has 
been a 
repeated 
traveller in 
the United 
States, and 
is universally 
acknowl- 
edged to be 
the sanest 
and most 
appreciative 
foreign 
observer of 
American 
government. 
The extract 



370 



Union Restored 



[1888 



is a good 
example of 
the matured 
generaliza- 
tions of a 
man who has 
seen things 
for himself. 
— For earlier 
critics, see 
above, Nos, 
64, 82. — For 
discussions 
of American 
institutions, 
see Contem- 
poraries, IV, 
ch. 



tants did so many little friendly acts for one another, few in 
which even the vanquished have so quickly buried their 
resentments. It is true that newspapers and public speak- 
ers say hard things of their opponents ; but this is a part of 
the game, and is besides a way of relieving their feelings : 
the bark is sometimes the louder in order that a bite may 
not follow. Vindictiveness shown by a public man excites 
general disapproval, and the maxim of letting bygones be 
bygones is pushed so far that an offender's misdeeds are 
often forgotten when they ought to be remembered against 
him. 

All the world knows that they are a humorous people. 
They are as conspicuously the purveyors of humour to the 
nineteenth century as the French were the purveyors of wit 
to the eighteenth. Nor is this sense of the ludicrous side 
of things confined to a few brilliant writers. It is diffused 
among the whole people ; it colours their ordinary life, and 
gives to their talk that distinctively new flavour which a 
European palate enjoys. . . . 

They are a hopeful people. Whether or no they are 
right in calling themselves a new people, they certainly 
seem to feel in their veins the bounding pulse of youth. 
They see a long vista of years stretching out before them, 
in which they will have time enough to cure all their faults, 
to overcome all the obstacles that block their path. They 
look at their enormous territory with its still only half- 
explored sources of wealth, they reckon up the growth of 
their population and their products, they contrast the com- 
fort and intelligence of their labouring classes with the con- 
dition of the masses in the Old World. They remember the 
dangers that so long threatened the Union from the slave 
power, and the rebellion it raised, and see peace and har- 
mony now restored, the South more prosperous and con- 
tented than at any previous epoch, perfect good feeling 
between all sections of the country. It is natural for them 



No. 139] Americans 371 

to believe in their star. And this sanguine temper makes 
them tolerant of evils which they regard as transitory, re- 
movable as soon as time can be found to root them up. 

They have unbounded faith in what they call the People 
and in a democratic system of government. The great 
States of the European continent are distracted by the con- 
tests of Republicans and Monarchists, and of rich and poor, 
— contests which go down to the foundations of govern- 
ment, and in France are further embittered by religious 
passions. Even in England the ancient Constitution is 
always under repair, and while many think it is being ruined 
by changes, others hold that still greater changes are needed 
to make it tolerable. No such questions trouble native 
American minds, for nearly everybody believes, and every- 
body declares, that the frame of government is in its main 
hnes so excellent that such reforms as seem called for need 
not touch those lines, but are required only to protect the 
Constitution from being perverted by the parties. Hence a 
further confidence that the people are sure to decide right 
in the long run, a confidence inevitable and essential in a 
government which refers every question to the arbitrament 
of numbers. . . . 

Religion apart, they are an unreverential people. I do 
not mean irreverent, — far from it ; nor do I mean that 
they have not a great capacity for hero-worship, as they 
have many a time shown. I mean that they are Httle dis- 
posed, especially in public questions — political, economi- 
cal, or social — to defer to the opinions of those who are 
wiser or better instructed than themselves. Everything 
tends to make the individual independent and self-reliant. 
He goes early into the world ; he is left to make his way 
alone ; he tries one occupation after another, if the first or 
second venture does not prosper ; he gets to think that each 
man is his own best helper and adviser. Thus he is led, I 
will not say to form his own opinions, for even in America 



37 2 Union Restored [isss 

few are those who do that, but to fancy that he has formed 
them, and to feel little need of aid from others towards cor- 
recting them. . . . 

They are a changeful people. Not fickle, for they are if 
anything too tenacious of ideas once adopted, too fast bound 
by party ties, too willing to pardon the errors of a cherished 
leader. But they have what chemists call low specific heat ; 
they grow warm suddenly and cool as suddenly ; they are 
liable to swift and vehement outbursts of feeling which rush 
like wildfire across the country, gaining glow, like the wheel 
of a railway car, by the accelerated motion. The very simi- 
larity of ideas and equality of conditions which makes them 
hard to convince at first makes a conviction once implanted 
run its course the more triumphantly. They seem all to 
take flame at once, because what has told upon one, has 
told in the same way upon all the rest, and the obstructing 
and separating barriers which exist in Europe scarcely exist 
here. Nowhere is the saying so apphcable that nothing suc- 
ceeds like success. The native American or so-called Know- 
nothing party had in two years from its foundation become 
a tremendous force, running, and seeming for a time likely 
to carry, its own presidential candidate. In three years 
more it was dead without hope of revival. . . . 

. . . The Americans are at bottom a conservative people, 
in virtue both of the deep instincts of their race and of that 
practical shrewdness which recognizes the value of perma- 
nence and solidity in institutions. They are conser\-ative in 
their fundamental beliefs, in the structure of their govern- 
ments, in their social and domestic usages. They are like 
a tree whose pendulous shoots quiver and rustle with the 
lightest breeze, while its roots enfold the rock with a grasp 
which storms cannot loosen. 

James Bryce, The Americati Comtnomvealth (third edition, New 
York, etc., 1895), II, 7.%\-i(p. passim. 



CHAPTER XXI— THE SPANISH WAR, 

1895-1899 

140. Troubles in Cuba (i 867-1 873) 

IN 1867 the Spanish government instituted a new and 
onerous system of taxation, which created so great 
dissatisfaction among both Cubans and Spaniards in the 
central and eastern departments, that some of the more 
sanguine revolutionary leaders believed that a combination 
could be formed between the two classes, by which the 
representatives of Spain could be easily driven out and the 
autonomy estabhshed. . . . 

The more important military operations of the insurrec- 
tion commenced in 1870, and their history is soon told. 
De Rodas, accustomed only to the European method of 
warfare, determined to concentrate his forces and crush the 
insurgents at once. During the latter part of December, 
1869, three thousand men under Gen. Puello, a native of 
San Domingo, moved from Puerto Principe to Nuevitas and 
thence took up the line of march for Guaimaro. On the 
first of January they encountered the Cubans under the 
American General Jordan, were sadly beaten and compelled 
to return with great loss to the coast. Soon afterward, a 
still larger Spanish force, numbering forty-five hundred men 
under Brigadier Goyeneche, moved directly on Guaimaro. 
The want of arms and ammunition, and especially of artil- 
lery, prevented the Cubans from opposing successful resist- 
ance to their march, and they reached their objective point 

373 



By 

William J. 
Starks, a 
contributor 
to Scribner's 
Monthly. 



Puerto Prin- 
cipe is an in' 
land city, 36 
miles from its 
port Nuevi- 
tas, which is 
on the north- 
east coast, 
Guaimaro in 
the moun- 
tains, south 
of Nuevitas, 



Puerto Prin 
cipe, 



374 Spanish War [1867-1873 

to find the seat of the republican government abandoned 
and partially destroyed. . . . 

The extent of country occupied by the insurgents is very 
great, and it is not probable that any Spanish force that can 
be sent against them can bring them into submission. In 
the remote locaUties occupied by them, the Cubans have 
manufactories of various kinds. Powder in small quantities 
has been manufactured, but under difiiculties owing to the 
want of material. 
Around In the mountains of Camaguey are to be found the head- 

quarters of Cespedes and those of the republican army, and 
here too the Cuban House of Representatives holds its 
sessions when occasion demands. The patriot army is sub- 
divided into divisions, with headquarters at such localities in 
the respective departments as the exigencies of the service 
will permit. The policy of the Cubans is the same as that 
adopted by the Dominicans upon the last invasion of their 
island by the Spaniards and by the Mexican Liberals under 
Juarez during the French intervention ; that is, of keeping 
out of the way of their enemy and allowing him to wear 
himself out in a hostile country, and in a climate deadly to 
Europeans. But though the insurgents adopt this course in 
the main, they are constantly attacking the Spanish columns 
when opportunity offers, and often inflict heavy loss upon 
them. 

The plan of operating with small detachments, adopted 
by the Spaniards after the futile march of Goyeneche upon 
Guaimaro, has been continued for two years ; military posts 
have been established at various points throughout the 
departments, and expeditionary columns have been sent 
out. These have given the war its peculiarly bloody and 
desolating character. The orders are to kill every man in 
the country, whether armed or otherwise. When an igno- 
rant peasant, a Chinaman, or a negro is captured, he is 
brought into the presence of the commanding officer, who 



No. I40] Cuban Troubles 375 

questions him in reference to the whereabouts of the insur- 
gents, and then gives a signal to an officer in attendance, 
who takes the victim out in advance of the column and 
shoots him, leaving the body to the vultures. If the pris- 
oner is of any prominence, he is taken to Havana, there to 
perish on the garrote for the delectation of the volunteers, 
as in the case of Goicuria, the brothers Aguero and Ayestu- 
ran. The women and children, when captured, are sent to This policy 
the cities, where they are ostensibly provided for, but are in °^thTh'"^ 
reaUty exposed to the greatest suffering. Every house is so-called 
burned, fruits and growing crops destroyed, cattle and trades"" vvas 
horses driven off, all small stock killed, and, in a word, the repeated in 

, . , , . 1895-98, and 

country over which the troops are operatmg is rendered a greatly 
desert, bare of animal life and of aught that can contribute peop'^e onhe 
to sustain it. . . , United 

... In consequence of that conservative tendency which 
is the natural consequence of authority, Valmaseda, like his Valmaseda 
predecessor, opposed those sanguinary and radical meas- ne^R^d^'^ ■ 
ures which found their advocacy in the Casino Espanol or 1870-71. 
Spanish Club of Habana. Additional troops were sent to l.e. Havana, 
him from Spain as they could be spared for that purpose, 
but still the insurrection continued, a fact which was attrib- 
uted to his leniency. The murmurs became louder and 
deeper as the months passed on, and it was not long before 
the once favorite Count followed De Rodas to Spain. His 
successor distinguished his accession by an attempt to bring Campos, 
the volunteers into submission. As he succeeds or fails in 
this, so is his government likely to prove a success or a 
failure. ... 

To the credit of the Great Republic be it said, that she 
at one time interested herself to change the character of the 
warfare in Cuba and to stop the horrible barbarities which 
were disgracing civilization. Under date of August loth, 
1869, General Sickles, American Minister in Madrid, was 
instructed solemnly to protest in the name of the President 



7>1^ 



Spanish War 



[1895 



In 1873 *he 
United 
States again 
remonstrated 
against the 
continuance 
of a devastat- 
ing and inef- 
fectual war, 
and in 1878 
the Spanish, 
through Gen- 
eral Campos, 
offered terms 
of peace, 
which were 
accepted. 



against any longer prosecuting the war in Cuba in this bar- 
barous manner. The protest wis apparently received in a 
proper spirit, and response was made that orders had 
been given to prevent such scenes of cruelty in the future. 
Doubtless in this reply the statesmen of Spain were influ- 
enced by that sentiment of humanity which they professed, 
and by that advanced liberalism upon which the revolution 
of 1868, to which they owed their position, was based, but 
the cruelties and barbarities continue. 

To-day Cuba, in its independent relations an outlaw 
among the nations, stands alone. Maintaining a heroic 
struggle amid every obstacle, she is confident, as were our 
forefathers, of that good time coming when victory shall 
perch on her banners and liberty belong to her people. 

William J. Starks, Ctiba and ike Cuban Insurrection, in Scrib- 
ner's Monthly, May, 1873 (New York, 1873), VI, 12-21 passim. 



By Don 
Enrique 
Jose 
Varona, 
previously a 
Cuban 

deputy to the 
Spanish 
Cortes. The 
extract is 
taken from a 
{)amphlet 
submitted to 
the Secretary 
of State by 
T. Estrada 
Palma, " au- 
thorized rep- 
resentative 
of the Cubans 



141. A Cuban Indictment of Spanish 
Rule (1895) 

IN exchange for all that Spain withholds from us they 
say that it has given us liberties. This is a mockery. 
The liberties are written in the constitution but obliterated 
in its practical application. Before and after its promulga- 
tion the public press has been rigorously persecuted in 
Cuba. Many journalists, such as Seiiores Cepeda and 
L6pes Brinas, have been banished from the country without 
the formality of a trial. . . . The official organ of the 
home-rule party. El Pals, named before El Triunfo, has 
undergone more than one trial for having pointed in 
measured terms to some infractions of the law on the part 



No. 141] Spanish Rule 377 

of officials, naming the transgressors. In 1887 that period- in arms." it 
ical was subjected to criminal proceedings simply because October 23, 
it had stated that a son of the president of the Havana ^895, and 

^ well states 

"audiencia" was holding a certain office contrary to law. the defects 
They say that in Cuba the people are at liberty to hold riij*"'^'^ 
public meetings, but every time the inhabitants assemble, 
previous notification must be given to the authorities, and 
a functionary is appointed to be present, with power to 
suspend the meeting whenever he deems such a measure 
advisable. The meetings of the "Circulo de Trabajadores" 
(an association of workingmen) were forbidden by the 
authorities under the pretex[t] that the building where they 
were to be held was not sufficiently safe. Last year the 
members of the "Circulo de Hacendados" (association of 
planters) invited their fellow-members throughout the coun- 
try to get up a great demonstration to demand a remedy 
which the critical state of their affairs required. The 
Government found means to prevent their meeting. . . . 
The work of preparation was already far advanced when 
a friend of the Government, Senor Rodriguez Correa, stated 
that the Governor-General looked with displeasure upon 
and forbade the holding of the great meeting. This was 
sufficient to frighten the "Circulo" and to secure the failure 
of the project. It is then evident that the inhabitants of 
Cuba can have meetings only when the Government thinks 
it advisable to permit them. 

Against this political regime, which is a sarcasm and in 
which deception is added to the most absolute contempt 
for right, the Cubans have unceasingly protested since it 
was implanted in 1878. It would be difficult to enumerate 
the representations made in Spain, the protests voiced by 
the representatives of Cuba, the commissions that have 
crossed the ocean to try to impress upon the exploiters of 
Cuba what the fatal consequences of their obstinacy would 
be. The exasperation prevailing in the country was such 



37^ Spanish War [1895 

that the "junta central" of the home-rule party issued in 
1892 a manifesto in which it foreshadowed that the moment 
might shortly arrive when the country would resort to 
" extreme measures, the responsibility of which would fall 
on those who, led by arrogance and priding themselves 
on their power, hold prudence in contempt, worship force, 
and shield themselves with their impunity." 

This manifesto, which foreboded the mournful hours of 
the present war, was unheeded by Spain, and not until a 
division took place in the Spanish party, which threatened 
to turn into an armed struggle, did the statesmen of Spain 
think that the moment had arrived to try a new farce, and 
to make a false show of reform in the administrative regime 
of Cuba. . . . 

This project, to which the Spaniards have endeavored to 
give capital importance in order to condemn the revolution 
as the work of impatience and anarchism, leaves intact the 
political regime of Cuba. It does not alter the electoral 
law. It does not curtail the power of the bureaucracy. It 
increases the power of the general Government. It leaves 
the same burdens upon the Cuban taxpayer, and does not 
give him the right to participate in the information of the 
budgets. The reform is confined to the changing of the 
council of administration (now in existence in the island, 
and the members of which are appointed by the Govern- 
ment) into a partially elective body. One-half of its 
members are to be appointed by the Government and the 
other half to be elected by the qualified electors — that is, 
/.<?. those who assessed and pay for a certain amount of taxes. The 
who, etc. Governor-General has the right to veto all its resolutions 
and to suspend at will the elective members. This council 
is to make up a kind of special budget embracing the items 
included now in the general budget of Cuba under the head 
of " Fomento." The State reserves for itself all the rest. 
Thus the council can dispose of 2.75 per cent of the 



No. i4i] Spanish Rule 379 

revenues of Cuba, while the Government distributes, as at 
present, 97.25 per cent for its expenses, in the form we have 
explained. The general budget will, as heretofore, be made 
up in Spain ; the tariff laws will be enacted by Spain. The 
debt, militarism, and bureaucracy will continue to devour 
Cuba, and the Cubans will continue to be treated as a sub- 
jugated people. All power is to continue in the hands of 
the Spanish Government and its delegates in Cuba, and all 
the influence with the Spanish residents. This is the self- 
government which Spain has promised to Cuba, and which 
it is announcing to the world, . . . 

The Cubans would have been wanting not only in self- 
respect but even in the instincts of self-preservation if they 
could have endured such a degrading and destructive regime. 
Their grievances are of such a nature that no people, no 
human community capable of valuing its honor and of 
aspiring to better its condition, could bear them without 
degrading and condemning itself to utter nulHty and anni- 
hilation. 

Spain denies to the Cubans all effective powers in their 
own country. 

Spain condemns the Cubans to a political inferiority in 
the land where they are born, 

Spain confiscates the product of the Cuban's labor without 
giving them in return either safety, prosperity, or education. 

Spain has shown itself utterly incapable of governing Cuba. 

Spain exploits, impoverishes, and demoralizes Cuba. 

To maintain by force of arms this monstrous regime, 
which brings ruin on a country rich by nature and degrades 
a vigorous and intelhgent population, a population filled 
with noble aspirations, is what Spain calls to defend its 
honor and preserve the prestige of its social functions as a 
civilizing power of America. 

Senate Reports, 55 Cong., 2 sess., No. 885, pp. 28-29 p'^ssim. 



38o 



Spanish War 



[i8g8 



By Colonel 
Theodore 
Roosevelt 
(1858- ), 
tormer As- 
sistant Secre- 
tary of War, 
and later 
governor of 
New York ; 
second in 
command of 
the First 
United States 
Volunteer 
Cavalry, 
commonly 
called the 
" Rough 
Riders." 
The horses 
of the regi- 
ment were 
not taken to 
Cuba, and 
the troops 
fought in 
front. Land- 
ing in Cuba 
on June 22, 
1898, they 
began their 
march on the 
23d, and this 
fight oc- 
curred on the 
24th at Las 
Guasimas. 
Wood 
was at this 
time colonel 
of the regi- 
ment, and for 
gallantry 
here and at 
San Juan was 
later pro- 
moted to be 
a general. 



142. The Rough Riders at the Front 

(1898) 

I HAD not seen Wood since the beginning of the skir- 
mish, when he hurried forward. When the firing 
opened some of the men began to curse. " Don't swear — 
shoot ! " growled Wood, as he strode along the path leading 
his horse, and everyone laughed and became cool again. 
The Spanish outposts were very near our advance guard, 
and some minutes of the hottest kind of firing followed 
before they were driven back and slipped off through the 
jungle to their main lines in the rear. . . . 

. . . When I came to the front I found the men spread out 
in a very thin skirmish line, advancing through comparatively 
open ground, each man taking advantage of what cover he 
could, while Wood strolled about leading his horse, Brodie 
being close at hand. How Wood escaped being hit, I do 
not see, and still less how his horse escaped. I had left 
mine at the beginning of the action, and was only regretting 
that I had not left my sword with it, as it kept getting 
between my legs when I was tearing my way through the 
jungle. I never wore it again in action. Lieutenant Rivers 
was with Wood, also leading his horse. Smedburg had been 
sent off on the by no means pleasant task of establishing 
communications with Young. 

Very soon after I reached the front, ... I noticed Good- 
rich, of Houston's troop, tramping along behind his men, 
absorbed in making them keep at good intervals from one 
another and fire slowly with careful aim. As I came close 
up to the edge of the troop, he caught a glimpse of me, 
mistook me for one of his own skirmishers who was crowd- 
ing in too closely, and called out, " Keep your interval, sir ; 
keep your interval, and go forward." 

A perfect hail of bullets was sweeping over us as we 



No. 142] Rough Riders 381 

advanced. Once I got a glimpse of some Spaniards, appar- 
ently retreating, far in the front, and to our right, and we 
fired a couple of rounds after them. Then I became con- 
vinced, after much anxious study, that we were being fired 
at from some large red-tiled buildings, part of a ranch on 
our front. Smokeless powder, and the thick cover in our 
front, continued to puzzle us, and I more than once con- 
sulted anxiously the officers as to the exact whereabouts of 
our opponents. I took a rifle from a wounded man and 
began to try shots with it myself. It was very hot and 
the men were getting exhausted, though at this particular 
time we were not suffering heavily from bullets, the Spanish 
fire going high. As we advanced, the cover became a little 
thicker and I lost touch of the main body under Wood ; so 
I halted and we fired industriously at the ranch buildings 
ahead of us, some five hundred yards off. Then we heard 
cheering on the right, and I supposed that this meant a 
charge on the part of Wood's men, so I sprang up and 
ordered the men to rush the buildings ahead of us. They 
came forward with a will. There was a moment's heavy 
firing from the Spaniards, which all went over our heads, 
and then it ceased entirely. When we arrived at the build- 
ings, panting and out of breath, they contained nothing but 
heaps of empty cartridge-shells and two dead Spaniards, 
shot through the head. 

The country all around us was thickly forested, so that it 
was very difficult to see any distance in any direction. The 
firing had now died out, but I was still entirely uncertain as 
to exactly what had happened. I did not know whether the 
enemy had been driven back or whether it was merely a lull 
in the fight, and we might be attacked again ; nor did I 
know what had happened in any other part of the line, 
while as I occupied the extreme left, I was not sure whether 
or not my flank was in danger. At this moment one of our 
men who had dropped out, arrived with the information 



382 



Spanish War 



[1898 



(fortunately false) that Wood was dead. Of course, this 
meant that the command devolved upon me, and I hastily 
set about taking charge of the regiment. I had been par- 
ticularly struck by the coolness and courage shown by Ser- 
geants Dame and Mcllhenny, and sent them out with small 
pickets to keep watch in front and to the left of the left 
wing. I sent other men to fill the canteens with water, and 
threw the rest out in a long line in a disused sunken road, 
which gave them cover, putting two or three wounded men, 
who had hitherto kept up with the fighting-line, and a dozen 
men who were suffering from heat exhaustion — for the fight- 
ing and running under that blazing sun through the thick 
dry jungle was heart-breaking — into the ranch buildings. 
Then I started over toward the main body, but to my delight 
encountered Wood himself, who told me the fight was over 
and the Spaniards had retreated. . . . 

The Rough Riders had lost eight men killed and thirty- 
four wounded . . . The First Cavalry, white, lost seven 
men killed and eight wounded ; the Tenth Cavalry, colored, 
one man killed and ten wounded ; so, out of 964 men 
engaged on our side, 16 were killed and 52 wounded. The 
Spaniards were under General Rubin, with, as second in 
command, Colonel Alcarez. They had two guns, and eleven 
companies of about a hundred men each . . . 

Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders^ in Scribner's Magazine, 
March, 1899 (New York, 1899), XXV, 272-274 passim. 



Written 
under date 
of August 27, 
1898, by 
General 
Francis 
Vinton 
Greene 
(1850- ), 



143. The Conditions of the Philippines 

(.898) 



I 



F the United States evacuate these islands, anarchy and 
civil war will immediately ensue and lead to foreign 
intervention. The insurgents were furnished arms and the 



No. 143] 



Philippines 



383 



moral support of the Navy prior to our arrival, and we can 
not ignore obligations, either to the insurgents or to foreign 
nations, which our own acts have imposed upon us. The 
Spanish Government is completely demoralized, and Spanish 
power is dead beyond possibility of resurrection. Spain 
would be unable to govern these islands if we surrendered 
them. Spaniards individually stand in great fear of the 
insurgents. The Spanish Government is disorganized and 
their treasury bankrupt, with a large floating debt. The 
loss of property has been great. On the other hand, the 
Fihpinos can not govern the country without the support 
of some strong nation. They acknowledge this themselves, 
and say their desire is for independence under American 
protection ; but they have only vague ideas as to what our 
relative positions would be — what part we should take in 
collecting and expending the revenue and administering the 
government. 

The hatred between the Spanish and natives is very in- 
tense and can not be eradicated. The natives are all 
Roman Catholics and devoted to the church, but have bitter 
hatred for monastic orders — Dominican, Franciscan, and 
Recollects. They insist that these be sent out of the coun- 
try or they will murder them. These friars own the greater 
part of the land, and have grown rich by oppressing the 
native husbandmen. Aguinaldo's army numbers 10,000 to 
15,000 men in vicinity of Manila, who have arms and am- 
munition, but no regular organization. They receive no 
pay, and are held together by hope of booty when they 
enter Manila. They are composed largely of young men 
and boys from surrounding country, who have no property 
and nothing to lose in a civil war. Aguinaldo has two or 
three ships, and is sending armed men to the northern por- 
tions of Luzon and to other islands. The Spaniards there, 
being cut off from communication with Manila and Spain, 
can not be reenforced. 



for the use 
of the Ameri- 
can commis- 
sion for the 
negotiation 
of a peace at 
Paris. Gen- 
eral Greene 
was in com- 
mand of the 
Second Bri- 
gade, Second 
Division, 
Eighth Army 
Corps, in the 
Philippines. 



384 



Spanish War 



[1898 



Provinces of 
Turkey, 
forcibly 
seized by 
Austria in 
1878-79. 
A native re- 
volt in Egypt 
was sup- 
pressed by 
England in 



The result will be an extension of the civil war and 
further destruction of property. There are in Manila itself 
nearly 200,000 native Filipinos, among whom are large 
numbers with more or less Spanish and Chinese blood who 
are men of character, education, ability, and wealth. They 
hate the Spanish, are unfriendly toward other nations, and 
look only to America for assistance. They are not altogether 
in sympathy with Aguinaldo, fearing the entry of his army 
into Manila almost as much as the Spaniards fear it. They 
say Aguinaldo is not fitted either by ability or experience to 
be the head of a native government, and doubt if he would 
be elected President in an honest election. Principal foreign 
interests here are British, and their feeling is unanimous in 
favor of American occupation. They have already forwarded 
a memorial to their Government asking for it as the only 
way to protect life and property. 

Altogether the situation here is somewhat similar to 
Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, and Egypt in 1882, and 
the only practicable solution seems to be on lines somewhat 
similar to those adopted in those cases. The length of our 
occupation would depend on circumstances as developed in 
the future, but should be determined solely in our discretion 
without obligation to or consultation with other powers. 
This plan can only be worked out by careful study by the 
Paris Commission, and they should have advice and full 
information from some one who has been here during our 
occupation and thoroughly understands the situation. It is 
not understood in America, and unless properly dealt with 
at Paris will inevitably lead to future complications and 
possibly war. 

The currency of the country is silver. The Mexican dollar 
is preferred, and worth about 47 cents gold, but the gold 
dollar will not buy in labor or merchandise any more than 
the Mexican dollar, and any attempt to establish a gold 
basis for currency would ruin any business in the islands. 



No. 144] 



Beginning 



385 



The total revenue is about ^17,000,000 Mexican, derived 
about 35 per cent from customs, 50 per cent from internal 
taxes, and 15 per cent from state lottery and sale of monop- 
olies. More than two-thirds of the internal revenue comes 
from poll tax or cedula, which is very unpopular. The 
country was self-supporting and free of debt until the insur- 
rection broke out about two years ago, but the expenses of 
the civil war have disorganized finances. There is a bonded 
debt, Series A, ^15,000,000 Mexican, held in Spain, for 
which the colony never received any consideration, and 
another debt, Series B, same amount, which was forced on 
the people here, and the validity of which is open to question. 
Both debts are secured by first liens on custom-house re- 
ceipts, but this does not appear to have been respected. 

Senate Executive Documents, 55 Cong., 2 sess., No. 52, Part II, 
374-375- 



144. A Review of the Spanish War (1898) 

TPIE first encounter of the war in point of date took 
place April 27th, when a detachment of the block- 
ading squadron made a reconnaissance in force at Matanzas, 
shelled the harbor forts, and demolished several new works 
in construction. 

The next engagement was destined to mark a memorable 
epoch in maritime warfare. The Pacific fleet, under Com- 
modore George Dewey, had lain for some weeks at Hong- 
Kong. Upon the colonial proclamation of neutrality being 
issued and the customary twenty-four hours' notice being 
given, it repaired to Mirs Bay, near Hong-Kong, whence 
it proceeded to the Phihppine Islands under telegraphed 
orders to capture or destroy the formidable Spanish fleet 
then assembled at Manila. At daybreak on the ist of May 
the American force entered Manila Bay and after a few 
2 c 



From the 
annual mes- 
sage of 
President 
William 
mckinley 
(1844- ), 
December 5, 
1898. Presi- 
dent McKin- 
ley was a 
soldier in the 
Civil War, 
member of 
Congress 
from 1877 to 
i8gi, gov- 
ernor of Ohio 
from 1 89 1 to 
1895, and was 
inaugurated 
as President 
on March 4, 
1897. — For 
accounts of 
the events 



386 



Spanish War 



[1898 



leading to 
war, see the 
Annual 
CyclopcTdia 
for 1898; 
Contempora- 
ries, IV, ch. 

Matanzas is 
on the north- 
ern coast of 
Cuba, next to 
Havana in 
commercial 
importance. 

Cavite is 
ten miles 
southwest of 
Manila. 



On the 
northern 
coast of 
Cuba, a short 
distance east 
of Matanzas. 



Second city 
of Cuba, 
capital of the 
eastern divi- 



hours' engagement effected the total destruction of the 
Spanish fleet, consisting of ten warships and a transport, 
besides capturing the naval station and forts at Cavite, thus 
annihilating the Spanish naval power in the Pacific Ocean 
and completely controlling the Bay of Manila, with the 
ability to take the city at will. Not a life was lost on our 
ships, the wounded only numbering seven, while not a vessel 
was materially injured. For this gallant achievement the 
Congress, upon my recommendation, fitly bestowed upon 
the actors preferment and substantial reward. . . . 

Following the comprehensive scheme of general attack, 
powerful forces were assembled at various points on our 
coast to invade Cuba and Porto Rico. Meanwhile naval 
demonstrations were made at several exposed points. On 
May nth the cruiser Wihningto7i and torpedo boat Winslow 
were unsuccessful in an attempt to silence the batteries at 
Cardenas, a gallant ensign, Worth Bagley, and four seamen 
falling. These grievous fatalities were strangely enough 
among the very few which occurred during our naval opera- 
tions in this extraordinary conflict. 

Meanwhile the Spanish naval preparations had been 
pushed with great vigor. A powerful squadron under 
Admiral Cervera, which had assembled at the Cape Verde 
Islands before the outbreak of hostilities, had crossed the 
ocean, and by its erratic movements in the Caribbean Sea 
delayed our military plans while baffling the pursuit of our 
fleets. For a time fears were felt lest the Oregon and 
Marietta, then nearing home after their long voyage from 
San Francisco of over 15,000 miles, might be surprised by 
Admiral Cervera's fleet, but their fortunate arrival dispelled 
these apprehensions and lent much needed reinforcement. 
Not until Admiral Cervera took refuge in the harbor of 
Santiago de Cuba, about May 19th, was it practicable to 
plan a systematic naval and military attack upon the Antillean 
possessions of Spain. 



No. 144] 



Hostilities 



387 



Several demonstrations occurred on the coasts of Cuba 
and Porto Rico in preparation for the larger event. On 
May 13th the North Atlantic Squadron shelled San Juan de 
Porto Rico. On May 30th Commodore Schley's squadron 
bombarded the forts guarding the mouth of Santiago har- 
bor. Neither attack had any material result. It was evident 
that well-ordered land operations were indispensable to 
achieve a decisive advantage. 

The next act in the war thrilled not alone the hearts of 
our countrymen but the world by its exceptional heroism. 
On the night of June 3d, Lieutenant Hobson, aided by 
seven devoted volunteers, blocked the narrow outlet from 
Santiago harbor by sinking the collier Merriinac in the 
channel, under a fierce fire from the shore batteries, escaping 
with their lives as by a miracle, but falling into the hands of 
the Spaniards. It is a most gratifying incident of the war 
ihat the bravery of this little band of heroes was cordially 
appreciated by the Spanish admiral, who sent a flag of truce 
to notify Admiral Sampson of their safety and to compliment 
them on their daring act. They were subsequently ex- 
changed July 7th. 

By June 7th the cutting of the last Cuban cable isolated 
the Island. Thereafter the invasion was vigorously prose- 
cuted. On June loth, under a heavy protecting fire, a 
landing of 600 marines from the Oregon, Marblehead, and 
Yankee was effected in Guantanamo Bay, where it had been 
determined to establish a naval station. 

This important and essential port was taken from the 
enemy after severe fighting by the marines, who were the 
first organized force of the United States to land in Cuba. 

The position so won was held despite desperate attempts 
to dislodge our forces. By June i6th additional forces were 
landed and strongly intrenched. On June 2 2d the advance 
of the invading army under Major-General Shafter landed at 
Daiquiri, about 1 5 miles east of Santiago. This was accom- 



sion, SIX 
miles from 
the southern 
coast. 

Principal city 
of Porto 
Rico, off the 
northern 
coast. 



On the 
southern 
coast of 
Cuba. 



388 Spanish War [1898 

plished under great difficulties but with marvelous dispatch. 
On June 23d the movement against Santiago was begun. 
On the 24th the first serious engagement took place, in 
which the First and Tenth Cavalry and the First United 
States Volunteer Cavalry, General Young's brigade of General 
Wheeler's division, participated, losing heavily. By night- 
fall, however, ground within 5 miles of Santiago was won. 
The advantage was steadily increased. On July ist a severe 
battle took place, our forces gaining the outworks of San- 
El Caney is a tiago : on the 2d El Caney and San Tuan were taken after 

little north- , , , , • - , . 

east of a desperate charge, and the uivestment of the city was 

Santiago. completed. The Navy cooperated by shelling the town and 
the coast forts. 

On the day following this brilliant achievement of our land 
forces, the 3d of July, occurred the decisive naval combat 
of the war. The Spanish fleet, attempting to leave the 
harbor, was met by the American squadron under command 
of Commodore Sampson. In less than three hours all the 
Spanish ships were destroyed, the two torpedo boats being 
sunk, and the Alaria Teresa, Alinirante Oqiiendo, Vizcaya, 
and Cristobal Colon driven ashore. The Spanish admiral 
and over 1,300 men were taken prisoners, while the enemy's 
loss of life was deplorably large, some 600 perishing. On 
our side but one man vvas killed, on the Brooklyn, and one 
man seriously wounded. Although our ships were repeatedly 
struck, not one was seriously injured. Where all so con- 
spicuously distinguished themselves, from the commanders 
to the gunners and the unnamed heroes in the boiler rooms, 
each and all contributing toward the achievement of this 
astounding victory, for which neither ancient nor modern 
history affords a parallel in the completeness of the event 
and the marvelous disproportion of casualties, it would be 
invidious to single out any for especial honor. Deserved 
promotion has rewarded the more conspicuous actors — the 
nation's profoundest gratitude is due to all of these brave 



No. 144] Conclusion 389 

men who by their skill and devotion in a few short hours 
crushed the sea power of Spain and wrought a triumph 
whose decisiveness and far-reaching consequences can 
scarcely be measured. Nor can we be unmindful of the 
achievements of our builders, mechanics, and artisans for 
their skill in the construction of our warships. 

With the catastrophe of Santiago Spain's effort upon the 
ocean virtually ceased. . . . 

.The capitulation of Santiago followed. The city was 
closely besieged by land, while the entrance of our ships 
into the harbor cut off all relief on that side. After a truce 
to allow of the removal of noncombatants protracted nego- 
tiations continued from July 3d until July 15 th, when, under 
menace of immediate assault, the prehminaries of surrender 
were agreed upon. On the 17th General Shafter occupied 
the city. The capitulation embraced the entire eastern end 
of Cuba. . . . 

With the fall of Santiago the occupation of Porto Rico 
became the next strategic necessity. General Miles had 
previously been assigned to organize an expedition for that 
purpose. Fortunately he was already at Santiago, where he 
had arrived on the nth of July with reinforcements for 
General Shafter's army. 

With these troops, consisting of 3,415 infantry and 
artillery, two companies of engineers, and one company of 
the Signal Corps, General Miles left Guantanamo on July 21st, 
having nine transports convoyed by the fleet under Captain 
Higginson with i\i& Massachusetts (flagship), Dixie, Glouces- 
ter, Columbia, and Yale, the two latter carrying troops. 
The expedition landed at Guanica July 25th, which port On the south 
was entered with little opposition. . . . Porto^Rico°' 

On July 27th he entered Ponce, one of the most impor- 
tant ports in the island, from which he thereafter directed southern 
operations for the capture of the island. coast. 

With the exception of encounters with the enemy at 



390 



Spanish War 



[1895 



In the south- 
ern part of 
the island. 



No. 145 is 
by John 
Davis 
Long (1838- 

), gov- 
ernor of 
Massachu- 
setts from 
1880 to 1882, 
and Secre- 
tary of the 
Navy since 
1897. The 
extract is 
from an 
address de- 
livered be- 
fore the City 
Council and 
citizens of 
Boston, 
July 4, 1882. 



Guayama, Hormigueros, Coamo, and Yauco, and an attack 
on a force landed at Cape San Juan, there was no serious 
resistance. The campaign was prosecuted with great vigor, 
and by the 12th of August much of the island was in our 
possession . . . 

The last scene of the war was enacted at Manila, its start- 
ing place. On August 15, after a brief assault upon the 
works by the land forces, in which the squadron assisted, 
the capital surrendered unconditionally. The casualties 
were comparatively few. By this the conquest of the Philip- 
pine Islands, virtually accomplished when the Spanish capac- 
ity for resistance was destroyed by Admiral Dewey's victory 
of the ist of May, was formally sealed. To General Merritt, 
his officers and men for their uncomplaining and devoted 
service and for their gallantry in action the nation is sincerely 
grateful. Their long voyage was made with singular success, 
and the soldierly conduct of the men, most of whom were 
without previous experience in the miUtary service, deserves 
unmeasured praise. 

The total casualties in killed and wounded in the Army 
during the war with Spain were : Officers killed, 23 ; enlisted 
men killed, 257 ; total, 280 ; officers wounded, 113 ; enlisted 
men wounded, 1,464; total, 1,577. Of the Navy: Killed, 
17; wounded, 67; died as result of wounds, i; invalided 
from service, 6 ; total, 91. 

[William McKinley], Message . . . communicated to the two 
Hojises of Congress at the beginning of the Third Session of the 
Fifty-fifth Congress (Washington, 1898), 10-15 p<^^sifn- 



145. The Future of the RepubUc (1895) 



^UR beloved country is more than a hundred 
years old. A century has come and has gone. 
It is indeed but as a day ; yet what a day ! Not the short 



O' 



No. 145] 



A Retrospect 



391 



and sullen day of the winter solstice, but the long, glorious, 
and prolific summer day of June. It rose in the twilight 
glimmerings of the dawn of Lexington, and its rays, falling 
on the mingled dew and gore of that greensward, and a Uttle 
later across the rebel gun-barrels of Bunker Hill, and then 
tenderly lingering on the dead, upturned face of Warren, 
broke in the full splendor of the first Fourth of July, and 
lay warm upon the bell in the tower of Independence Hall, 
as it rang out upon the air the cry of a free nation newly 
born. Its morning sun, now radiant and now obscured, 
shone over the battlefields of the Revolution, over the ice 
of the Delaware, and over the ramparts at Yorktown swept 
by the onslaught of the chivalrous Lafayette. It looked 
down upon the calm figure of Washington inaugurating the 
new government under the Constitution. It saw the slow 
but steady consolidation of the Union. It saw the marvelous 
stride with which, in the early years of the present century, 
the repubhc grew in wealth and population, sending its ships 
into every sea, and its pioneers into the wilds of the Oregon 
and to the lakes of the North. It burst through the clouds 
of the War of 181 2, and saw the navy of the young nation 
triumph in encounters as romantic as those of armed knights 
in tournament. It heard the arguments of Madison, Ham- 
ilton, Marshal, Story, and Webster, determining the scope of 
the Constitution, and establishing forever the theory of its 
powers and restrictions. It beheld the overthrow of the de- 
lusion which regarded the United States as a league and not 
a nation, and that would have sapped it with the poison of 
nullification and secession. It saw an era of literature begin, 
distinguished by the stately achievements of the historian, 
the thought of the philosopher, the grace of oratory, the 
sweet pure verse of the American poets, — poets of nature 
and the heart. It brought the tender ministry of uncon- 
sciousness to human pain. It caught the song of machinery, 
the thunder of the locomotive, the first click of the telegraph. 



See above, 
No. 57. 

See Contem' 
poraries, II, 
No. 192. 

See above, 
No. 58. 



See above, 
Nos. 59, 63, 

See above. 
No. 71. 



See above. 
No. 80. 

See above, 
ch. xiii. 

See above, 
Nos. 68, 69. 



See above, 
Nos. 70, 99, 
103, 104, I26^ 
135- 



392 



Spanish War 



[1895 



See above, 
Nos. 90, 92, 
103. 

See above, 
No. 105. 



See above, 
No. 104. 

See above, 
chs. xviii, xix. 



It saw the measureless West unfold its prairies into great 
activities of life and product and wealth. It saw the virtue 
and culture and thrift of New England flow broad across the 
Mississippi, over the Rocky Mountains, and down the Pacific 
slope, expanding into a civilization so magnificent that its 
power and grandeur and influence to-day overshadow indeed 
the fount from which they sprang. It saw America, first 
wrenching liberty for itself from the hand of European 
tyranny, share it free as the air with the oppressed and 
cramped peoples of Europe, carrying food to them in their 
starvation, offering them an asylum, welcoming their cooper- 
ation in the development and enjoyment of the generous 
culture and freedom and opportunity of the New World, 
and setting them, from the first even till now, an example 
of free institutions and local popular government, which 
every inteUigent and self-respecting people must follow. Its 
afternoon was indeed overcast with shameful assault made 
on an unoffending neighbor to strengthen the hold of slavery 
upon the misguided interests of the country ; and there came 
the fiery tempest of civil war : the heart of the nation mourned 
the slaughter of its patriots, and the treason and folly of its 
children of the South, yet welcomed them back to their place 
in the family circle. And now eventide has come ; the storm 
is over ; the long day has drawn to its close in the magnificent 
irradiation that betokens a glorious morning. We gather at 
our thresholds and hold sweet neighborly converse. Our chil- 
dren are about us in pleasant homes ; our flocks are safe ; our 
fields are ripening with the harvest. We recall the day, and 
pray that the (lod of the pilgrim and the patriot will make 
the morrow of our republic even brighter and better. . . . 

John D. Long, Afier-Diiuier and other Speeches (Boston, etc., 
1895), 221-223. 



INDEX 



[The names of the authors of extracts are in boldface. The titles of the pieces are in 
Small Capitals. The titles of books cited are in italics.] 



ABOLITIONISTS, topics, xxxvii, xliii ; a 
western argument, 242 ; a southern de- 
fence, 246; in Boston, 248; poem, 258; 
political, 263 ; Lincoln, 291; Stephenson, 
297. — See also Emancipation, Slavery. 

Adams, C. F., Richa?-d Henry Dana, 284. 

Adams, John, Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 147; Works, 149. 

Adams, John Quincy, Missouri Com- 
promise, 234; Memoirs, 237. 

Admiralty Court, at Halifax, 204. 

Admission of new States, topics, xli. 

Aguinaldo, forces under, 383. 

Albany, description of, 44 ; Indian trade at, 
60 ; politics at, 355. 

Allegiance, Lee on oath of, 343. 

Alligators, on the Mississippi, 97. 

Amendment, of Constitution proposed, 202. 

America, discovery of, i ; charges against, 
141 ; Cr^vecoeur describes, 161 ; future 
of, 168, 390 ; Jackson's impressions of, 
212; character of Americans, 369. — See 
also Colonies, Congress, Revolution, 
United States, and Table of Contents. 

America and her Cotnmenfators, xxi. 

American Antiquarian Society, Transac- 
tiotis and Collections, 14. 

American Colonial Tracts, xxi. 

American Historical Association, Report, 
xviii. 

American. History Leaflets, xxi. 

American History Studies, xviii, xxi. 

American History told by Contemporaries, 
xviii, xxi. 



American Orations, xxi. 

American State Papers, 194, 196. 

Ames, Fisher, On the Tariff, 183; 
Speeches, 186. 

Anabaptists, in New Amsterdam, 43; 
Roger Williai.is, 53. 

Andrews, Sidney, The South, 336; 
South since the War, 339. 

Andros, Sir Edmund, New York, 58. 

Anghiera, Peter Martyr, An English 
Voyage, 4. 

Annexations, topics, xli. 

Anonymous, English Plundering Voy- 
age, 9 ; First English Exploration, 
11; Plantation Life in Virginia, 
91; Destruction of Deerfihld, 98; 
American Patriot's Prayer, 143; A 
Ballad on Cornwallis, 159; Cave 
Life in Vicksburg, 320. 

Antietam, effect on emancipation, 317. 

Anti-slavery. — See Abolitionists, Slavery. 

Appointments. — See Patronage. 

Appomattox, surrender at, 330. 

Aquiday, settled, 56. 

Arbitration, with Great Britain, 358. 

Archdale, John, Description of Caro- 
lina, 65; governor of Carolina, 67. 

Arkansas, religion in, 231. 

Army, American, Revolution, topics, xxxix; 
land bounties, topics, xl ; list of battles, 
xlv; Civil War, topics, xlv; minute- 
men at Lexington, 145; militia, 150; 
regulars, 151 ; in South Carolina, 153 ; 
at Bull Run, 305; wounded, 311; at 



393 



394 



Ind 



ex 



Murfreesboro, 318; at Gettysburg, 324; 
destruction by, 338. — See also Indians, 
Revolution, War. 

Army, British, at Concord, 145; Hessians 
serve in, 154 ; at Saratoga, 155 ; at Phila- 
delphia, 158; at New Orleans, 222. 

Army, Confederate, former U. S. officers, 
301 ; conditions, 308; at Gettysburg, 326; 
destruction by, 338. — See also Civil War. 

Articles of Confederation. — See Confed- 
eration. 

Ash, Thomas, Indian Corn, 32; Caro- 
lina, 32. 

Ashland, Confederate camp at, 309. 

Assemblies, troubles with governors, 128. 

Assistants, in Massachusetts, 47. 

Associations of Colleges and Preparatory 
Schools, -xviii. 

Assumption, of State debts, 186. 

Astoria, founded, 209. 

Autobiographies and reminiscences, .xxiii. 

BACCALLAOS, Cabot's discovery of, 4. 
Baird, Gen., in New Orleans, 347. 

Balch, Thomas, Letters and Papers, 128. 

Baltimore, Cecil, Lord. — See Maryland. 

Baptists, in Rhode Island, 54; in the West, 
231. 

Barlow, William, King and the Puri- 
tans, 37 ; Conferenceat HamptonCourt. 39. 

Barnes, Mary Sheldon, " what is time for," 
xxviii. 

Bath Archives, 213. 

Battles, topics, xlv, .xlvi. — See also Army, 
Navy, War. 

Baynton, Sir Edward, an English gentle- 
man, 20. 

Beauregard, Gen., fires on Sumter, 303. 

Beer, niade from Indian corn, 32. 

Belcher, Jonathan, governor of Massa- 
chusetts, 110. 

Benton, Thomas Hart, Kansas-Ne- 
braska, 284. 

Berkeley, Sir William, governor of Virginia, 
91- 

Berlin Decree, 214. 

Besse, Joseph, Suffer tngs of the People called 
Quakers, 82. 



Bibliographies, of sources, xx. 

Bigot, Francois, Capture of Quebec, 

105. 

Billynge, E., proprietor of Jersey, 63. 

Birds, in the West Indies, 2. 

Birkbeck, Morris, A Settler in Illinois, 
237 ; Letters, 240. 

Black, William, Social Life in Phila- 
delphia, 115. 

Bladensburg, battle of, 219. 

Board of Trade. — See Trade and Planta- 
tions. 

Border States, emancipation in, 328. 

Boston, Josselyn at, 29 ; named, 46 ; reli- 
gious disturbances in, 55, 80; disease in, 
74 ; traders of, 88 ; Colonial Town- 
Meeting, 132; Records, 136 ; meeting in 
Faneuil Hall, 137 ; in 1806, 226 ; charac- 
ter of inhabitants, 227 ; anti-abolitionist 
mob in, 249. 

Botume, Elizabeth Hyde, A Negro 
School, 339 ; First Days amongst the 
Contrabands, 342. 

Boudinot, Elias, President of Congress, 165. 

Bowen, Abel, The Naval Afonument, 218. 

Bowery, Charity, A Slave's Narrative, 

255- 

Braddock, Gen., defeated, 103. 

Bradford, William, Settlement of 
Plymouth, 39; History, ^i. 

Breckinridge, John C, candidate for presi- 
dency, 297. 

Brewster, William, kindness of, 41 ; advice 
as to Roger Williams, 52. 

Brown, Henry Box, A Fugitive's Narra- 
tive, 260. 

Brown, John, Last Speech, 294; exe- 
cuted, 295. 

Bruce, John, editor. The Verney Family, 29. 

Bryce, James, Character of the 
Americans, 369; The American Com- 
monwealth, 372. 

Buflfaloes, Coronado finds, 6. 

Bull-tights, at New Orleans, 241. 

Bull Run, battle of, 305, 310 ; Pope's defeat 
at, 317. 

Bumaby, Rev. Andrew, Supremacy of 
Parliament, 141; Travels, 143. 



Army — Colonies 



395 



Butler, Gen., arrives in New Orleans, 314. 
Byrd, Col. William, Criticism of Sla- 
very, 119. 

CABINET (Lincoln's), topics, xlv; on 
emancipation, 316. 
Cabot, Sebastian, discoveries of, 4. 
Calhoun, John C, on the Union, 234. 
California, topics, xliv ; Drake in, 11 ; 

emigration to, 270 ; gold-mining in, 276 ; 

admission of, 280 ; prohibits slavery, 

286. 
Calvin, John, influence on government, 50. 
Calvinists, in New Amsterdam, 42. 
Cambridge (Mass.), founded, 47. 
Camp-meeting, description of, 232. 
Campos, Gen., commands in Cuba, 375. 
Canada, topics, xxxvii; captives in, 100; 

fur trade in, 100 ; Canadian soldiers, 107. 

— See also French, Indians. 
Canal, between Atlantic and Pacific, 168. 
Canary Islands, trade with, 89. 
Cape Cod, whale found at, 76. 
Cape Rouge, English anchored at, 105. 
Capital, located on the Potomac, 188. 
Cardenas, fight at, 386. 
Carhagouha, Champlain in, 15. 
Carolinas, topics, xxxiv ; Ash describes, 32 ; 

government of, 65 ; war against the Kus- 

soes, 66; toleration in, 66; land-holding 

in, 67. — See also North Carolina, South 

Carolina. 
Carpenter, F. B., Proclamation of 

Emancipation, 315 ; Six Months at the 

Wkite House, 318. 
Carter, Richard, Case of Impressment, 

194. 
Carver, John, governor of Plymouth, 41. 
Oastell, Rev. William, Reasons for 

Emigration, 21. 
Cathay, supposed discovery, 1. 
Catholics, in New Amsterdam, 43; in the 

West, 231, 234; in the Philippines, 383. 
"Centennial Hymn," 358. 
Cervera, Admiral, movements of, 386; 

courtesy of, 387. 
Chamberlain, D. H., Failure of Recon- 
struction, 349. 



I Champlain, Samuel, as an illustration, 
i xxviii ; A French Exploration, 14. 

Charleston, (S. C), in 1682; after the war, 
336; a newspaper, 351. 

Charlestown (Mass.), founded, 46; scurvy 
in, 74. 

Charters, granted by the king, 141. — See 
also Colonies. 

Chase, S. P., A Political Abolition- 
ist, 263 ; The Address of the Southern 
and Westerti Liberty Convention, 265 ; on 
emancipation, 316. 

Chester (Pa.), Quakers at, 70. 

Chicago River, La Salle on, 96. 

Child, Lydia Maria, Letters from New York, 

257- 

Chili, Drake off coast of, 9. 

Christiana, Swedes at, 43. 

Christmas, not observed in England, 19; 
Lewis and Clark's, 207. 

Church, of England, 50, 62 ; formation of a, 
77; in New Netherlands, 87. — See also 
Religion. 

Cibola, Coronado in, 8. 

Cities and towns, topics, xlii. 

Civil Service Reform, topics, xlvi ; Curtis 
on the working of, 363. 

Civil War, topics, xlv; causes, 244-302; 
outbreak, 303 ; battles, 305, 313, 318, 323 ; 
soldiers, 308 ; wounded, 311 ; slavery, 315, 
327; siege, 320; surrender, 329; commer- 
cial effects, 334 ; diplomatic complica- 
tions, 358. 

Class-room, work in, xxv; with sources, 
xxvii, xxxi. 

Clay, Henry, Compromise of 1850, 279. 

Cleveland, Henry, Alexander H. Stephens, 
299. 

Cod-fish, discovered, 5. 

Colchester, founded, 57. 

Colonies, topics on conditions, xxxiv; on 
government, xxxviii ; discoveries, 1-17 ; 
conditions, 18-32 ; first era, 33-57 ; second 
era, 58-73 ; seventeenth century life, 74- 
95 ; French wars, 98-107 ; eighteenth 
century life, 108-123 ; government, 124- 
136; Revolution, 137-160. — See also 
Table of Contents and colonies by name. 



39^ 



Index 



Colton, Rev. Walter, At the Gold 

Fields, 276; Three Years in California, 

279. 
Columbia River, Lewis and Clark on, 209. 
Columbus, Christopher, reference to, 

xxviii; Discovery of the New 

World, i ; Select Letters, 3. 
Commissioners, for Treaty of Washington, 

357- 

Committee of Seven, Study of History in 
Schools, xviii. 

Committee of Ten, Report on Secondary 
Schools, xviii. 

Companies, topics, xxiii. — See also com- 
panies by name. 

Compromise of 1850, topics, xliv; Clay on, 
279. 

Compromises of the Constitution, topics, 
xli. — See also Constitution. 

Concord, fight at, 145. 

Confederate States of America, topics, xlv. 
— See also Civil War, Secession, Slavery, 
South. 

Confederation, Articles, xl ; topics, xl ; Con- 
gress of, 164; Northwest Ordinance, 169; 
criticism, 172. — See also Constitution. 

Congress, Continental, 147; Confederation, 
164; Northwest Ordinance, 169; in 1789, 
183, 186; embargo, 209; War of 1812, 
214; Missouri Compromise, 234; Com- 
promise of 1850, 279; Kansas-Nebraska 
Act, 284 ; Reconstruction, 344 ; Civil 
Service Reform, 363. 

Congressional Globe, extracts, 281, 287, 346. 

Connecticut, topics, xxxv; foundation of 
government, 51; prosperity, 59; North- 
west Ordinance, 171; Jefferson, 199. 

Connecticut Historical Society, Collections, 

52- 

Constitution (ship), captures the Guerridre, 
217. 

Constitution, topics, xl ; topics on ratifi- 
cation, xl; objections to, 172; scope of, 
174; advocated, 175; poem on, 178; in 
danger, 199; amendment, 202; slavery 
compromise, 236; Lincoln on, 327; affec- 
tion for, 371. — See also Union, United 
States. 



Continental Congress. — See Confedera- 
tion, Congress. 

Conventick-s, in New Netherlands, 87. 

Cook, Ebenezer, Tobacco Planters, hi ; 
Sot- Weed Factor, 115. 

Copper, found in the Blue Ridge, 14. 

Corn. — See Indian Corn. 

Cornwallis, ballad on, 159. 

Coronado, A Spanish Exploration, 206. 

Cotton plantations. — See Slavery. 

Crevecoeur, What is an American? 161 ; 
American Farmer, 163. 

Cromwell, Oliver, 18. 

Cuba, topics, xliv ; discovered, i ; first insur- 
rection, 373 ; the Cubans, 374 ; the Span- 
iards, 375 ; press, 376 ; public meetings, 
377 ; politics, 378 ; Spanish reforms, 378 ; 
war, 380, 385. 

Currency, topics, xxxviii, xl ; wampum used 
as, 70; regulated in Massachusetts, 76; 
Indian, 103; in Pennsylvania, 105; paper 
money, 157 ; resumption of specie pay- 
ments, 360. 

Curtis, George William, Civil Service 
Reform, 363; Orations and .-Addresses, 

365- 

Cushing, Caleb, Treaty of Washing- 
ton. 355-358. 

Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, Northwest Or- 
dinance, 169. 

Cutler, W. P. and Julia P., Life of Manasseh 
Cutler, 1J2. 

DAKOTA, Indian troubles in, 368. 
Dana, Richard Henry, Rescue of 
Shadrach, 282. 

Bankers, Jasper, Maryland, 48 ; I'oyage 
to \t'2o Yor/c, 51. 

Davis, Charles Augustus, Jackson's Re- 
SPONSiliiLiTV, 266; Letters of y. Down- 
ing, Major, 268. 

Debates, topics for, xli. 

Deerfield, destruction of, 98. 

Delaware, governed from New York, 70 ; 
part of Pennsylvania, 70. 

Delaware River, Washington crosses, 149. 

Delaware Town, description of, 70. 

De Rodas, policy in Cuba, 373. 



Colton — Filipinos 



397 



Dewey, George, at Cavite, 385. 

Discoveries, topics, xxxiii, xxxiv; accounts 
of, 1-17, 33, 39, 42. — See Table of Con- 
tents. 

Diseases, in New England, 30, 74. 

Dix, Rev. Morgan, Rousing of the 
North, 303 ; Memoirs of John Adams 
Dix, 305. 

Dorchester (Eng.), emigration from, 45. 

Dorchester (Mass.), founded, 47. 

Doubleday, Abner, Attack on Fort 
Sumter, 299 ; Reminiscences, 302 ; killed 
at Gettysburg, 326. 

Douglas, Stephen A., Kansas-Nebraska 
Act, 284; Criticism of Lincoln, 291; 
Political Debates (with Lincoln) , 294 ; 
candidate for presidency, 296. 

Downing, Major Jack. — See Davis, C. A. 

Doyle, J. A., English in America, xxi. 

Drake, Sir Francis, voyage, g. 

Dred Scott Decision, McLean, 290 ; dicta 
in, 291 ; Lincoln on, 293. 

Drunkenness, 72. — See Temperance. 

Dudley, Thomas, Massachusetts, 45; 
Letter to the Countess of Lincoln, 48. 

Dutch, discoverers, topics, xxxiv; settle- 
ments, topics, XXXV ; Indians, 15; ships 
to Virginia, 23; trade with New England, 
46; in Delaware, 70; coasting trade, 75; 
Minister at Princeton, 164; loan, 192. 

Dwight, Theodore, Election of Jeffer- 
son, 197 ; Oration at New Haven, 200. 

EAST INDIA, trade with, 90; tea shipped 
from, 137. 

Easton, Nicliolas, teaching of, 56. 

Edmundson, Rev. William, Journey 
through Delaware, 69; Journal, 71. 

Education, topics, xxxvi, xxxviii. — See also 
Schools. 

Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, Whitefield's visit 
to, no. 

Eggleston, George Gary, The Southern 
Soldier, 308; Rebel's Recollections, 311. 

El Caney, taken, 388. 

Election, 1801, topics, xli ; i860, topics, xliv; 
management of colonial, 126; in Kan- 
sas, 287. — See also Government. 



Emancipation, J. Q. Adams foresees, 235; 
Douglas on, 293 ; proclamation, 315 ; 
military, 328 ; in the border States, 328. — • 
See also Abolitionists, Slavery. 

Embargo, effects, 209; constitutionality, 211. 

Emerson, R. W., on history, xxix. 

Emerson, Rev. William, Le.xington and 
Concord, 144; killed at Ticonderoga, 
144. 

Emigration, cost of colonial, 26 ; from Ger- 
many, 68 ; from Wales, 68 ; of Quakers, 
70; to the West, 167; from England, 
239; to Oregon, 269. 

Endicott, John, plants in New England, 45. 

England. — See Colonies, English, Revolu- 
tion, Treaty, United States, War, and 
Table of Contents. 

English, in America, topics, xxxiv; discover- 
ies, 4, 9 ; exploration, 11, 34 ; life, 18 ; over- 
population, 21 ; in New Netherlands, 43 ; 
ignorance on colonies, 140; interests in 
Philippines, 384. 

Erskine, negotiates in America, 212. 

Espanola, discovered, 2. 

Evelyn, John, Life in England, 18; 
typical English gentleman, 20; Memoirs, 
21. 

Exeter (N.H.), foundation, 57. 

Exploration. — See separate nations, and 
Table of Contents. 

CARRAGUT, David Glasgow, Farra- 
•T gut at New Orleans, 313. 
Fearon, H. B., Amusements in New 
Orleans, 240; Sketches of America, 

241- 

Featherstonhaugh, G. W., Internal 
Slave-Trade, 251 ; Excursion, 254. 

Federal Convention, topics, xl. — See Con- 
stitution. 

Federalists, principles, 18 1-196 ; and Jeffer- 
son, 197; and Sir Francis Jackson, 213. 

Fenwick, John, New Jersey, 62; at 
Salem, 70. 

Ferdinand and Isabella. — See Spain. 

Fernow, Berthold, Records of New Amster- 
dam, 88. 

Filipinos. — See Philippines. 



398 



Index 



Finances, topics, xl, xlvi. — See Currency. 

Finns, in Delaware, 70. 

Fisheries, in Treaty of Ghent, 224; in 
Treaty of Washington, 358. 

Fletcher, Francis, The World Encom- 
passed, n. 

Flint, Rev. Timothy, Religious Life in 
THE West, 231 ; The Mississippi Valley, 

234- 

Floridas, value of, 201 ; our title to, 202. 

Flowers, in South Carolina, 32. 

Foreign relations, topics, xli, xlvi ; rival 
voyages, 1-17 ; maritime grievances, 188 ; 
XYZ, 191; impressment, 194; Louisi- 
ana, 200; Oregon, 206; embargo, 209; 
Peace of Ghent, 223; Mexican War, 
271 ; Treaty of Washington, 355 ; Cuban 
troubles, 373-392. — See also Dutch, Eng- 
lish, French, War. 

Fort Duquesne, fight at, 104. 

Fort Moultrie, firing from, 302. 

Fort Orange. — See Albany. 

Fort Sumter, attack on, 299. 

France. — See French. 

Frankfort Advice, vote on, 147. 

Frankland, population of, 167. — See also 
Tennessee. 

Franklin, Benjamin, on taxation, 126; Gov- 
erning OF Colonies, 130; Works, 
132; on Declaration of Independence, 
148. 

Freedmen. — See Negroes. 

Free-schools. — See Schools. 

Fr6mont, Gen., military emancipation, 
328. 

French, B. J., Historical Collections of 
Louisiana, 98. 

French, discoverers, topics, xxxiv ; relations 
with English, topics, xxxvii; Champlain, 
14; Iroquois, 15; trade with Indians, 59, 
89, roo ; La Salle, 96 ; destruction of Deer- 
field, 98 ; Montcalm, 106 ; X Y Z affair, 
192 ; sell Louisiana, 200; conduct in 1812, 
214. 

Friends. — See Quakers. 

Fruits, in West Indies, 2; in Kansas, 7; 
in Virginia, 12. 

Fugitive slaves. — See Slavery. 



GALLATIN, Albert, Discussion of 
THE Peace, 223 ; Writings, 225. 

Gaming, in England, 21. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, An Anti- 
Abolitionist Mod, 248; arrested, 250. 

Garrison, W. P. and F. J., William Lloyd 
Garrison, 251. 

Gass, Patrick, Lewis and Clark's 
Oregon Expedition, 206; Journal, 
209. 

Geary, Gen., at Gettysburg, 325. 

George III, question of instructions, 131; 
relations to Revolution, 138-142 ; John 
Adams on, 148. 

Georgia, topics, xxxvi ; founded by Ogle- 
thorpe, 71. 

Germans, immigrants, 68. 

Gerry, Elbridge, XYZ Despatches, 191. 

Gettysburg, battle of, 323. 

Ghent, Treaty of, 223. 

Gileadites, League of, 294. 

Gleig, Rev. George Robert, Capture of 
Washington, 218 ; Narrative, 220. 

Gold, in West Indies, 2; not found in 
Kansas, 7 ; in California, 276. — See also 
Currency. 

Government, topics, colonial and Revolu- 
tionary, xxxviii, xxxix ; in Connecticut, 
51; colonies in general, 124-136; in- 
structions, 130; Revolutionary, 147, 157; 
Confederation, 164; federal, 181-187; 
Jackson's, 266 ; Kansas, 287 ; Civil 
War, 315, 333; Reconstruction, 336-351; 
Tweed Ring, 352; civil service, 363; 
prophecy, 390. — See also Colonies, 
colonies by name. Congress, English, 
President. 

Governors, Massachusetts, 74; New York, 
128; salaries, 129. — See also colonies 
and governors by name, and Instruc- 
tions. 

Grant, Gen. U. S., Lee's surrender, 329. 

Graydon, Alexander, Colonial School- 
boy, 122; Alemoirs, 123. 

Greene, Gen. Francis, The Philippines, 
382. 

Guaimaro, Cuban capital, 373. 

Guanahani, landfall at, i. 



Finances — James 



399 



Guantanamo Bay, landing at, 387. 
Guasimas, battle, 380. 
Guenidre, captured, 216. 

HADLEY (town), relieves Deerfield, 99. 
Halifax, Admiralty Court at, 204. 

Hall, Basil, " Blockading a Neutral 
Port," 202 ; Voyages and Travels, 206. 

Hamilton, Alexander, on assumption, 186; 
hostility to Jefferson, 186. 

Hampton (Va.) , site of, 34. 

Hancock, Gen., at Gett3'sburg, 325. 

Hart, Dr. Albert Gaillard, In the Thick 
OF THE Fight, 318; MS. letters, 320. 

Harvard, Whitefield visits, no. 

Hayes, Gen., at Gettysburg, 325. 

Hening, W. W., Statutes of Virginia, 95. 

Henry VII, of England, 5. 

Hessians, at Saratoga, 126. 

History, founded on sources, xvii ; source 
study, xviii ; functions, xix ; source mate- 
rials, XX ; purposes, xxiv, xxv, xxix ; com- 
pared with science, xxv ; in secondary 
schools, xxiv-xxviii ; in normal schools, 
xxix-xxxii ; topics, xxxiii-xlvi. 

Hoar, Samuel, in Charleston, 275. 

Hobson, Lieut., heroism of, 387. 

Holden, Robert, Trade of the Colo- 
nies, 88. 

Holland. — See Dutch. 

Holston, population of, 167. 

Hooker, Rev. Thomas, Government in 
Connecticut, 51. 

Hopkinson, Francis, The New Roof, 178 ; 
Miscellaneous Essays, 180. 

House of Representatives, Report of Ka?isas 
Committee, 289. — See also Congress. 

Howard, Benjamin C, Decision of the 
Supreme Court, 291. 

Howard, Oliver Otis, Military Gov- 
ernor in Louisiana, 346. 

Hudson, Dutch settlements on, 42, 43. 

Huling, Ray Greene, Sources in Second- 
ary Schools, xxiv. 

Hull, Capt. Isaac, Capture of the 
Guerriere, 216. 

Hunter, Gen., attempts military emancipa- 
tion, 328. 



Huntington, Benjamin, Life in Con- 
gress, 164. 
Hurons, French relations, 15. 
Hutchinson, Mrs. Anne, settles Aquiday, 

55. 56. 

IBERVILLE (River), boundary of Lou- 

^ isiana, 201. 

Illinois, La Salle in, 96 ; settlements in, 237. 

Illustrations, use of, xxv. 

Impressment, Jay on, 190; a case of, 195. 

Independence, declared, 147. — See also 
Congress, Revolution, Union, United 
States. 

India, supposed discovery of, I. 

Indian corn, ways of cooking, 32; drinks 
made from, 32; raised in Maryland, 50. 

Indians, as illustrations, xxviii ; topics on, 
xxxiii, xlvi ; in Cuba, 1; dress, 7, 8 ; in 
Virginia, 12; war-path, 17, 25; relations 
with English, 23, 67 ; worship, 23, 25 ; 
villages, 24 ; houses, 24 ; chiefs, 24 ; recre- 
ation, 24, 26, 103 ; boats, 25 ; relation with 
French, 28, 100; right to the land, 57; 
small-pox, 75 ; domestic animals, 97 ; on 
the Mississippi, 97 ; firearms sold to, loi ; 
of the West, 207 ; our treatment of, 366 ; 
education of, 367. 

Indies, West, Columbus in, i ; East, trade 
with, 90, 137. 

Industries, topics, xxxviii. 

Instructions, of governors, 125; Franklin on, 
130; of town representatives, 134. — See 
also Government, Governors. 

Ireland, trade with, 89. 

Ireton, Henry, funeral, 18. 

Irish, character as emigrants, 228. 

Iroquois, topics, xxxvii ; cruelty of, 15 ; and 
French, 16. — See also Indians. 

JACKSON, ANDREW, topics, xliii; at 

J New Orleans, 221 ; criticism of, 266 ; re- 
sponsibility of, 266. 

Jackson, Francis James, Impressions of 
America, 212. 

Jacobins, Jeffersonian Republicans, 197. 

James I, and the Puritans, 37. 

James River, exploration, 12. 



400 



Index 



Jamestown, site of, 33; rebuilt, 35. 

Jay, John, Maritime Grievances, 188; 
in England, 189; Correspondence, 190. 

Jefferson, Thomas, topics on, xli ; 
Declaration of Independence, 147; 
Question of Compromise, 186; Writ- 
ings, 188, 202; criticism of, 197; ACQUI- 
SITION OF Louisiana, 200 ; characterized, 
228; appearance, 228. 

Jogues, Father Isaac, New Amsterdam, 
42 ; J-'.ipcrs, 44. 

Johnson and Buel, editors. Battles and 
Leaders of the Civil War, 333. 

Jones, Rev. J. William, Personal Remi- 
niscences 0/ Robert E. Lee, 344. 

Josselyn, John, Rarities of New Eng- 
land, 29 ; Two Voyages, 31. 

KALM, Professor Peter, French Trade 
with the Indians, 100; Town of 

New York, 117; Governor and 

Assembly, 128 ; Travels into North 

America, 103, 119, 130. 
Kanawha, slave-trade on, 251. 
Kansas, topics, xliv; Coronado in, 7; 

election in, 287. 
Kansas-Nebraska Act, topics, xliv; Benton 

on, 284; repeals Missouri Compromise, 

284 ; author of, 292. — See also Slavery, 

Territories. 
Kentucky, population of, 167 ; trade with 

New Orleans, 240 ; abolition in, 265. 
Kings. — See English, George III, Henry 

VII, James I. 

T ADD, Erastus D., Troubles in Kan- 

•»-' SAS, 287. 

Lady, A., Cave Life in Vicksbnrg, 323. 

Lake Michigan, navigation, 358. 

Lake of the Woods, boundary, 201, 225. 

Land-holding, topics, xl; in New Jersey, 
64; in the Carolinas, 65; in common, 
76. — See also Emigration, Govern- 
ment. 

La Salle, explorations, 96 ; character, 97. 

Latour, Arsene, Battle of New Or- 
leans, 220; Historical Alemoir, 223. 

Leander, frigate, 204. 



Lechford, Thomas, Church Services, 

77 ; Plain Dealing, 79. 

Lee, Robert E., at Gettysburg, 326; sur- 
render, 329; Advice on Reconstruc- 
tion, 342. 

Levee, Washington's, 183. 

Lewis and Clark, expedition to Oregon, 
206. 

Lexington, battle, 145. 

Leyden, Pilgrims at, 79. 

Liberator, newspaper, 249. 

Libert^' Bell Leaflets, xxii. 

Libraries, use for schools, xxvi. 

Library 0/ American Literature, xxii. 

Lincoln, Abraham, topics, xlv; criticism 
of, 291 ; Political Debates (with Douglas), 
294; calls for men, 304; on emancipa- 
tion, 315; War and Slavery, 327; 
Complete Works, 329 ; Lowell on, 333. 

Lincoln, Benjamin, in South Carolina, 153. 

Literature, colonial, topics, xxxvi. 

Long, John Davis, Future of the Re- 
public, 390; Speeches, 392. 

Lords of Trade. — See Trade and Plan- 
tations. 

Louisiana, topics, xxxvii; acquisition, 200; 
boundary, 201; population, 202; dis- 
posal, 202 ; religion, 231 ; amusements, 
240; slave-trade in, 252; after the war, 
346. 

Lowell, James Russell, Mexican War, 
271; Biglow Papers, 276; ABRAHAM 
Lincoln, 333 ; Commemoration Ode, 

335- 
Lundy, Benjamin, abolitionist, 248. 
Lutherans, in New Amsterdam, 43. 
Lynn, shoe manufacture in, 228. 



M* 



[cCRACKAN, W. D., Huntington Let- 
ters, 166. 

McDuffie, George, Defence of Slavery, 
244. 

McKinley, William, Spanish War, 385; 
Message to Congress, 390. 

Maclay, William, A View of Washing- 
ton, 181; Journal, 183. 

McLean, John, Dred Scott Decision 
290. 



Jamestown — Navy 



401 



Madagascar, trade with, 90. 

Maderas, trade with, 89. 

Madison, James, Causes of the War, 
214; Writings, 216; at Bladensburg, 219. 

Magellan, Straits, Drake at, 9. 

Maine, boundary, 225. 

Maize. — See Indian Corn. 

Manhattan. — See New Amsterdam, New 
York. 

Manila, Aguinaldo threatens, 383 ; sur- 
render, 390. 

Marshall, John, X Y Z Despatches, 
191. 

Martin, Susanna, trial of, 82. 

Martyr, Peter, Decades 0/ the N ewe Worlde, 
6. 

Maryland, topics, xxxiv ; description of, 48 ; 
unpopular, 49; prosperity, 59 ; losses, 108; 
satire, iii; food, 114; Northwest Ordi- 
nance, 171. 

Mason, George, Objections to the Con- 
stitution, 172. 

Massachusetts, topics, xxxv; first planting, 
45; boundary, 45; question of appeal, 
56; settlement, 74; religion, 77; perse- 
cution, 80; Proceedings of the Conven- 
tion, 178; on Treaty of Ghent, 223; in 
Mexican War, 275; on secession, 304; 
on South Carolina, 336. 

Matanzas, Spanish War begins at, 385. 

Mather, Cotton, A Witch Trial, 82; 
Wonders of the Invisible World, 85. 

Maverick, Samuel, note on, 75; buries In- 
dians, 75; bail for Indians, 76. 

Mayday, observances, 74, 86. 

Meade, George G., hero of Gettysburg, 325. 

Medford, founded, 46. 

Medicine, early New England, 31 ; in Phila- 
delphia, 116. 

Meeting-houses, description of, 79. 

Melish, John, Boston, 226 ; Travels, 228. 

Mennonites, name, 43; in politics, 127. 

Merrimac, settlements on, 57. 

Merrimac (ship) sunk by Hobson, 387. 

Merritt, Gen. Wesley, in the Philippines, 390. 

VTerrymount, Morton at, 74. 

Methodists, in the West, 231, 234. 

Mexico, topics on war with, xliv; Lowell 

2D 



on the war, 271 ; abolition of slavery by 

280. 
Miles, Gen. Nelson, at Porto Rico, 389. 
Military. — See Army, Battles, War. 
Militia. — See Army. 
Ministers, religious, in New York, 61 ; 

elected in New England, 77 ; in the 

West, 231 ; itinerant, 232. 
Minute-Men. — See Army. 
Mississippi River, La Salle on the, 96; de- 
scription of the upper, 98 ; navigation, 

167, 225 ; value of, 201 ; slave-trade on 

the, 252. 
Missouri, emigration to Oregon, 270 ; Mis- 

sourians vote in Kansas, 289. 
Missouri Compromise, topics, xlii ; J. Q. 

Adams on, 234, 236; constitutionality of, 

290. — See also Kansas-Nebraska Act. 
Missouri River, La Salle discovers the, 96. 
Molasses, duty on, 184. 
Monastic orders, in the Philippines, 383. 
Monongaliela River, Braddock at, 104. 
Monroe Doctrine, topics, xlii. 
Montcalm, Marquis de, at Quebec, 106. 
Moore, Frank, Songs and Ballads of the 

Revolution, 160. 
Moose Island, ceded to Great Britain, 224. 
Morgan, Thomas Jefferson, Treatment 

of the Indians, 366; Present Phase 

of the Indian Question, 369. 
Morton, Joseph, governor of Carolina, 66. 
Morton, Nathaniel, Rhode Island, 52; 

New-Englands Memoriall, 54. 
Morton, Robert, Paper Money, 157; 

Diary, 159. 
Morton, Thomas, note on, 74. 
Mosquitoes, in New Jersey, 164. 
Murfreesboro, battle of, 318. 
Muskingum, prosperity of, 167. 
Mystic River, settlements on, 46, 74. 

NATCHEZ, slave-trade at, 352. 
Nation. — See Union. 
Naturalization, in Pennsylvania, 127. 
Navigation Acts, in New York, 61. — See 

also Trade. 
Navy, topics, xlii, xlv ; maritime discover- 
ies, 1-6; Drake, 9; at Quebec, 105; 



402 



Ind 



ex 



grievances, i88; impressment, 194; 
blockade, 202; in War of 1812, 216; at 
New Orleans, 313; at Manila, 385; at 
Santiago, 386. — See also Dutch, English, 
French, War. 

Negroes, topics, xlv ; as slave-holders, 94 ; 
capacity, 243; destiny, 245; citizenship, 
293 ; proper status, 296 ; arming, 328 ; 
education, 339, 348 ; effect of war, 346 ; 
franchise, 349. — See also Abolitionists, 
Slavery. 

Neutral trade, topics, xli ; vexation on, 
204 ; rights of, 215. 

New Amsterdam, description, 42; Ordi- 
nances, 85; Life in New York, 85; 
streets, 88; government, 88. — See also 
Dutch, New Netherlands, New York. 

New Ceserea. — See New Jersey. 

New England, Josselyn's description, 29; 
rents, 43 ; planting of, 45 ; early town- 
meetings, 47; difficulties, 47; life in, 48, 
74; motives for settling, 48 ; Quakers, 80; 
opinion of Jefferson, 199. — See also 
Colonies, and States by name. 

New England Confederation, topics, xxxv. 

New Hampshire, topics, xxxv, foundation, 

55- 

New Holland. — See New Netherlands. 

New Jersey, topics, xxxv; land system, 63; 
communistic tendencies, 64 ; government, 
64; militia, 151; mosquitoes, 164. 

New Mexico, territorial government, 280, 
286. — See also Mexico, Spain. 

New Netherlands, situation, 42; religion, 
42,87; settlement, 43; climate, 43; fur- 
trade, 44; government, 86; population, 
89. — See also Dutch, New Amsterdam, 
New York. 

New Orleans, to become American, 168 ; 
battle of, 220 ; amusements, 240; capture, 
313. — See also Louisiana. 

Newport, Capt. Christopher, note, 11 ; enter- 
tained by Indians, 12; arrival, 35. 

" New Rook," The, 178. 

Newspapers, as sources, xxiii, 360. 

Newtowne. — See Cambridge. 

New Year's Day, in New Netherlands, 
86. 



New York, topics, xxxv; courts, 58; stat- 
utes, 58; government, 58, 128; militia, 
58; fortification, 59; boundary, 59; 'rade, 
60, 203; population, 61, 118; religion, 
62; taxes, 62; description by Kalm, 117; 
buildings, 118; blockade, 202; on seces- 
sion, 304. — See also Colonies, New Am- 
sterdam, New Netherlands. 

New York City. — See New York. 

New York Historical Society, Tlie Jogues 
Papers, 44. 

Nipissings, lake of the, 14, 

Normal Schools, sources in, xxix. 

North. — See Civil War, Secession, Slavery, 
States by name. Territories, Union. 

North Carolina, inducements to immi- 
grants, 108 ; exemption from debts, io8, 
— See also Carolinas, South. 

North River.-— See Hudson. 

North Wales, in Pennsylvania, 68. 

Northwest Ordinance, inner history, 169; 
passes, 172 ; effect, 280 : on the Missouri 
Compromise, 290. 

Nullification, McDuffie on, 245. — See also 
Secession. 

O'CALLAGHAN, E. B., Documents 
relative to the Colonial History of the 
State of New York, 62, 107. 
Ogilby, John, America, 63. 
Oglethorpe, J. E., Progress of Georgia, 

71- 

Ohio, La Salle on the, 97. 

Ohio Company, before Congress, 169. 

Old South Church, mentioned, 137. 

Old South Leaflets, xxii. 

Orders in Council. — See Neutral Trade. 

Ordinance of 1787. — See Northwest Ordi- 
nance. 

Oregon, topics, xliii ; Drake off the coast, 
II; Lewis and Clark in, 209; trail to, 
268 ; emigration to, 270. 

Oregon (ship), remarkable voyage, 386. 

Oxford, examinations at, 20. 

Oysters, in Virginia, 34. 

PACIFIC OCEAN, Lewis and Clark at, 
309. 



Negroes — Reconcentrados 403 



Paine, Thomas, poem attributed to, 143 ; 

Additions to Common Sense, 144. 
Pakenham, Sir Edward, killed at New 

Orleans, 222. 
Papal bull, English opinion, 22. 
Paper money. — See Currency. 
Parkman, Francis, Jr., Oregon Trail, 

268-271. 
Parliament, petition to, 23 ; claims of, 138 ; 

colonial measures, 138 ; supremacy, 161. 

— See also England. 
Parroquets, in Virginia, 92. 
Passamaquoddy Bay, in Treaty of 1814, 

225. 
Patronage, removals by Jefferson, 198 ; used 

by Tweed Ring, 355 ; conduct of national, 

363. 364- 

Patroon system, in New Netherlands, 44. 

Pausch, Capt. Georg, At Saratoga, 154; 
Journal, 157. 

Peace. — See Treaties. 

Peloubet, F. N., Supplies for the 
Wounded, 311. 

Penn, William, relations with Fenwick, 63 ; 
proprietor of Pennsylvania, 68; treat- 
ment of Indians, 68. 

Pennsylvania, topics, xxxvi ; settlement, 67; 
religion, 67 ; industry, 68 ; immigration 
from Germany, 68 ; growth, 69. 

Pennsylvania Magaziite, 65, 159. 

Perfect Description of Virginia, 92. 

Petition of W. C, 23. 

Petitions, to Parliament, 23 ; to James 1, 37 ; 
right of the colonists, 142. 

Philadelphia, growth, 69; social life, 115; 
markets, 115; Christ Church, 116; mili- 
tia, 151 ; under the British, 158; Centen- 
nial Exposition, 359. — See also Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Philippines, topics, xlvi ; conditions, 382. 

Pilgrims. — See Plymouth. 

Pinckney, C. C, XYZ Despatches, 191. 

Piscataqua, settlements on, 56. 

Plantations, life on, 50, 91, in. — See also 
Slavery. 

Plymoutli, topics, xxxv; settlement of, 39; 
Roger Williams in, 52. 

Pocahontas, note on, 34. 



Politics. — See Colonies, Election, Govern- 
ment, Union. 

Ponce, Gen. Miles occupies, 389. 

Porter, David D., at New Orleans, 314. 

Porter, Horace, Surrender of Lee, 329. 

Porto Rico, Gen. Miles occupies, 389. 

Potomac. — See Army, Civil War. 

Poultry, in New England, 31. 

Powhatan, and Capt. Newport, 13 ; and 
Capt. Smith, 34. 

Presbyterians, James I on, 38 ; in the col- 
onies, 234. 

Prescott, Samuel, alarms Concord, 144. 

President, position of, 173, 363. 

Princeton, battle, 149; Congress at, 164. 

Proprietors, Maryland, 49; Carolina, 65, 
90 ; Pennsylvania, 68. 

Proud, Robert, History of Pennsylvania, 
69. 

Providence, founded, 54. — See also Rhode 
Island. 

Provincetown, Mayflower at, 40. 

Puritans, character, xxx; in New Amster- 
dam, 43. — See also Massachusetts, Ply- 
mouth, Religion. 

Purviance, Samuel, How to Manage 
Elections, 126. 

QUAKERS, topics, xxxvi ; characteristics, 
20; in Pennsylvania, 67 ; persecuted in 
Massachusetts, 80; meeting, 117. — See 
also Religion. 
Quebec, founded, 14; captured, 105. — See 

also Canada, French. 
Quincy, Josiah, Effect of the Em- 
bargo, 209; Speeches, 2.11. 
Quivira, Coronado in, 7. 

RANDOLPH, Sarah N., Domestic Life 
of Thomas Jefferson, 231. 
Randolph, Thomas, Virginia Gentle- 
man, 228. 
Rankin, Rev. John, American Slavery, 244. 
Ratification. — See Constitution. 
Reading, in schools, xxv ; in classes, xxvii. 
Rebellion. — See Civil War. 
Recollect Fathers, note on, 15, 
Reconcentrados, note on, 375. 



404 



Index 



Reconstruction, topics, xlv; Lee on, 342; 
proclamation of May 29, 1865, 343 ; con- 
gressional, 344; in Louisiana, 346; failure, 

349- 

Redpath, James, yohti Brown, 296. 

Reform. — See Civil Service, Patronage. 

Religion, topics, xxxvi ; prophesying, 37 ; 
superstition in New England, 75 ; Puritan 
doctrine, 77; Quaker doctrine, 80. — See 
also colonies by name and sects by 
name. 

Removals. — See Patronage. 

Rensselaers, colony of, 44. 

Reorganization, topics, xlii. 

Report of the Committee of Seven, xviii. 

Republic. — See Union. 

Republican party, on reconstruction, 344. 

Resumption, of specie payments, 360. — 
See also Currency. 

Revolution, illustrations from, xxviii ; topics, 
xxxix, xl ; Boston Tea-Party, 137 ; colo- 
nists' case, 138 ; English case, 141 ; " Pa- 
triot's Prayer," 143 ; battles, 144, 149, 151, 
154; government, 147, 181; finances, 157. 
• — See also Army, colonies by name, Eng- 
lish, Government, Union, War. 

Rhode Island, topics, xxxv; founded, 52. 
— See also Williams, Roger. 

Rice, in Virginia, 91 ; slavery on planta- 
tions, 254, 258. 

Richmond, site, 13. 

Rio del Norte, boundary, 201. 

Rio Perdita, boundary, 201. 

Riots, in elections, 127,289; anti-abolition- 
ist, 248. 

Robinson, William, A Quaker Warn- 
ing, 80. 

Roman Catholics. — See Catholics. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, The Rough Riders, 
380 ; at Guasimas, 380. 

Rosecrans, Gen., at Murfreesboro, 320. 

Rough Riders, at the front, 380. 

Roxbury, founded, 47. 

Russell, W. H., account of Bull Run, 308. 

CABBATH. — See Sunday. 
^-5 Sadler, John, Requirements of an 
Emigrant, 26. 



Saint Gabriel. — See Carhagouha. 

St. Lawrence, Champlain on, 14 ; naviga- 
tion, 358. 

Salem (Del.), visit to, 70. 

Salem (Mass.), Puritans at, 46; Roger 
Williams at, 52. 

Sampson, Admiral, at Santiago, 388. 

Sanchez, Raphael, letter to, i. 

San Domingo, discovered, 2. 

San Francisco, Drake in the bay, 11. 

San Juan (Cuba), battle of, 388. 

San Juan (Porto Rico), shelled, 387. 

San Salvador, discovered, i. 

Santiago de Cuba, Cervera in, 386 ; shelled, 
387 ; capitulates, 389. 

Saratoga, battle of, 154. 

Saunders, William L., Records of North 
Carolina, 90, 109. 

Savannah, founded, 72; site, 73. 

Schley, Commodore, at Santiago, 387. 

Schools, secondary, sources in, xxiv; at 
Oxford, 20; in Virginia, 92 ; colonial, 122; 
flogging, 123 ; school-committee, 134; in 
Boston, 227; for contrabands, 339; in 
Louisiana, 348. 

Scioto, prosperity of, 167. 

Scotch-Irish, in America, 138. 

Scotland, peace with, 22 ; trade with, 89. 

Scott, Dred. — See Dred Scott. 

Scribner's Magazine, 382. 

Scrooby, Pilgrims come from, 39. 

Search, right of. — See Neutral Trade. 

Secession, topics, xliv; causes, 282-296; 
corner-stone, 296 ; attack on Fort Sumter, 
299 ; North aroused, 303 ; Southern sol- 
dier, 308; cave life, 320; surrender, 329; 
effects, 336. — See also Civil War, 
Slavery, South. 

Secondary schools, sources in, xxiv-xxviii. 

Secretary of the Navy, Report, 315. 

Secretary of War, Report, 349. 

Senate Executive Documents, 385. 

Senate Reports, 379. 

Servants (white), topics, xxxv^ii ; cost of, 
26; needed in Virginia, 26; sold in 
Maryland, 50; in New jersey, 63; Vir- 
ginia laws, 93. — See also Industries, 
Slavery. 



Reconstruction — States 



405 



Settlement, topics, xxxiv ; conditions, 18-32 ; 
first era, 33-57 ;, second era, 58-73. — See 
also Colonies, and the colonies by name, 
Territories, West. 

Seventeenth century, topics, xxxvi. 

Seward, William H., on emancipation, 
316. 

Seymour, John, Discomforts of Colo- 
nial Life, 108. 

Shadrach, rescue, 282. 

Shafter, Major-Gen., lands at Daiquiri, 387 ; 
occupies Santiago, 389. 

Shays's Rebellion, effects, 176. 

Sheldon, George, History of Dcerfield, 100. 

Sheridan, Gen. P. H., in Louisiana, 347. 

Sherman, Roger, in Congress, 148. 

Sioux, country of, 98. — See also Indians. 

Six Nations. — See Indians, Iroquois. 

Slafter, E. F., I'oyages of Chainplain, 17. 

Slavery, general topics, xxxvi, xl, xliv; argu- 
ments against, topics, xliii; arguments 
against, extracts, 235, 242, 263, 271, 323; 
defence of, topics, xliii ; defence of, ex- 
tracts, 245, 247, 296 ; episodes, topics, 
xliii ; episodes, extract, 255 ; life of slaves, 
topics, xliii ; life of slaves, narrative, 246 ; 
fugitive slaves, topics, xliv ; fugitive slaves, 
narratives, 253, 260; fugitive slaves, legis- 
lation, 93, 281; colonial legislation, 92; 
baptism, 93; numbers, 120, 244; dangers, 
120, 243 ; English government on, 121 ; 
price, 254 ; sugar plantations, 254 ; pri- 
vate earnings, 257 ; rice plantations, 258 ; 
Missouri Compromise, 286 ; in the terri- 
tories, 290, 291 ; in the Confederacy, 296 ; 
emancipation, 315. — See also colonies 
and States by name, and Slave-trade, 
Squatter Sovereignty. 

Slave-trade, international, topics, xliii ; in- 
terstate, topics, xliii ; interstate, conduct 
of 251; slave-drivers, 253. 

Sluyter, Peter, Maryland, 48, Voyage to 
Ne^v York, 51. 

Smith, John, Settlement of Virginia, 
33 ; exertions, 36; General! Historie, 37. 

Smith, Jonathan B., Political Harvest 
Time, 175. 

Smithfield, woman burned at, 18. 



Smuggling, in South Carolina, 89. — See 

also Trade. 
Smyth, Thomas, governor of Carolina, 67. 
Social life, topics, xxxvi, xxxvii. — See also 

Table of Contents. 
Sources, use of, xvii ; materials for source 
study, XX ; bibliographies of, xx ; reprints 
of, xxi; additional, xxii ; in secondary 
schools, xxiv ; in normal schools, xxix ; 
topics for, xxxiii. 

South, topics, xlv; policy before the war, 
271 ; spirit, 310 ; reconstruction, 336 ; 
political corruption after the war, 351. — 
See also Civil War, Reconstruction, Seces- 
sion, Slavery, Territories, States by name. 

South America, trade with, 167. 

South Carolina, description, 65 ; govern- 
ment, 65; nobility in, 65; history, 66; 
aids Georgia, 73 ; war in, 151 ; slavery in, 
245 ; begins the Civil War, 303 ; recon- 
struction, 336. — See also Carolinas, Civil 
War, Colonies, Slavery, South. 

Southwest, life in the, 240. — See also the 
States and territories by name. 

Spain, discoverers, topics, xxxiv, accounts, 
I, 6; claims Virginia, 22; trade, 89, 167; on 
the Mississippi, 167; in the Floridas, 201,; 
rule in Cuba, 373; war policy in Cuba, 
374; rule in the Philippines, 383. — See 
also Spanish War. 

Spanish V^ar, topics, xlvi ; review of, 385 ; 
naval preparations, 386 ; destruction of 
Spanish fleet, 388 ; results of, 390. — See 
also Army, Cuba, Spain, War. 

Spelman, Henry, Indian Life, 23; Rela- 
tion of I'irgifiia, 26. 

Squatter sovereignty, Benton on, 285 ; 
Douglas on, 291 ; Dred Scott Decision, 
292. — See also Slavery, Territories. 

Stamp Act, topics, xxxix. 

Standish, Miles, character of, 41. 

Stanhope, Earl of. Council of Trade, 
124. 

Starks, William J., Troubles in Cuba, 

373- 
States, records as sources, xxiii ; land 
claims, xl ; constitutions, xl ; ratification, 
xl ; admissions, xh ; secession, xliv. — 



4o6 



Ind 



ex 



See also Secession, Union, and States by 

name. 
Stearns, Charles, Henry Box Drown, 

263. 
Stedman, E. C, Bull Run, 305; Battle 

of Bull Run, 308. 
Stephens, A. H., Corner-Stone of the 

Confederacy, 296. 
Stevens, Thaddeus, Congressional Re- 
construction, 344. 
Stevenson, Marmaduke, A Quaker 

Warning, 80. 
Stone River. — See Murfreesboro. 
Sunday, observance of, in New England, 

79; in New Amsterdam, 85; in New 

Orleans, 240. — See also Religion. 
Swedes, settlement of, 43 ; receive the 

Quakers, 67 ; in Delaware, 70. 
Symes, Benjamin, free-school, 92. 

'TALLEYRAND, in X Y Z affair, 191. 
-'• Tariff, illustrated, xxx; danger to Union, 
174; first tariff debate, 184. 

Taylor, Geo. L., Supplies for the 
Wounded, 311. 

Taylor, Zachary, on Compromise, 280. 

Teaching, reforms in, xxiv ; with sources, 
xxiv-xxxii ; Normal training, xxxii, xxxiii. 

Tea-party, Boston, 1773, 137. 

Temperance, in South Carolina, 72 ; in 
Massachusetts, 74; need of, 121. 

Temple, Sir John, at Philadelphia, 170. 

Territories, topics, xliii, xliv; rival claims 
to America, 1-17 ; Northwest Ordinance 
169; Louisiana, 200, 240; Oregon, 206; 
Missouri Compromise, 234; Western 
settlements, 237 ; Mexican War, 271 ; 
California, 276; Compromise of 1850, 
279 ; Kansas-Nebraska, 284 ; Kansas, 287 ; 
Dred Scott, 290 ; Cuba, 373 ; Philippines, 
382. — See also States and territories by 
name. Slavery, West. 

Texas, topics, xliv ; title to, 202 ; annexa- 
tion, 272 ; slavery, 280, 286. 

Text-books, use of, xxv, xxx. — See also 
Class-room. 

Thanksgiving, in Georgia, 72 ; in Massa- 
chusetts, 74. 



Tilden, Samuel Jones, Tweed Ring, 352 ; 
Writings and Speeches, 355. 

Tobacco, in Virginia, 28 ; in Maryland, 49 ; 
in North Carolina, 89. 

Toleration, in England, 39; in Maryland, 
50 ; in Rhode Island, 54 ; in the Caro- 
linas, 66; Quakers claim, 82. — See also 
Puritans, Religion. 

Tonty, Henry Sieur de. La Salle on the 
Mississippi, 96. 

Town life, topics, xxxvi. — See also towns 
and cities by name. 

Town-meeting, description, 132; conduct, 
132; officers, 132; summons, 133. 

Townsend, Richard, Settlement of 
Pennsylvania, 67. 

Trade, topics, xxxviii, xlii ; colonial, 88 ; 
fur, loi ; Indian, loi. — See also Indus- 
tries, and colonies, towns, and nations by 
name. 

Trade and Plantations, Commissioners of, 
letter to, 108; duties, 124; activity, 131. 

Travel, topics, xxxvi, xxxviii. 

Treaties, topics, xl, xlii, xlvi ; Jay's, 194 ; 
Ghent, 223 ; Washington, 355. — See also 
War. 

Trees, in West Indies, 2; in New England, 
29; in Virginia, 91. 

Tribune, New York, Battle of Gettys- 
burg, 323-327. 

Tudor, Deacon John, Boston Tea-Pa rty, 

137- 
Tudor, William, Deacon Tudor' s Diary, 

137- 
Turkeys, in Virginia, 12; in Pennsylvania, 

68. 
Tweed Ring, Tilden on, 352. 

UNION, topics, xlii, xlvi; New York 
Tories, 140; Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 147; Articles of Confedera- 
tion, 164; Federal Constitution, 172-180; 
organization, 181-188; Calhoun on, 234; 
J. Q. Adams on, 237; Lowell on, 276; 
and uniformity, 292; and slavery, 296; 
effect of the war on, 344; future of, 390. 
— See also Congress, Constitution, Gov- 
ernment, Revolution. 



Stearns — Women 



407 



United States. — See Army, Cabinet, Civil 
War, Colonies, Confederation, Congress, 
Constitution, Cuba, Foreign Relations, 
Government, Indians, Navj', Revolution, 
Secession, Slavery, Territories, Union, 
West, and Table of Contents. 

U. S. Christian Commission, Fij-st Ainmal 
Report, 312. 

University of Pennsylvania, Graydon at, 122. 

Uplands. — See Chester. 

Utah, territorial government, 280, 286. 

■\ rALMASEDA, commander in Cuba, 375. 
^ Vancouver's Island, arbitration, 358. 

Varona, Enrique Jose, Cuban Indict- 
ment OF Spanish Rule, 376. 

Verney, Lady, letter to, 26. 

Vicksburg, siege of, 320; life in, 322. 

Virginia, character of, xxix ; topics, xxxiv ; 
resources, 21 ; danger from Spain, 22 ; 
voyage to, 23 ; Dutch in, 23 ; troubles 
witli Indians, 33; Smith in, 33; neglect, 
35; exports, 35, 75 ; climate, 92; schools, 
92; Cornwallis in, 160; exhaustion of soil, 
254 ; slave-trade, 254. 

Virginia Assembly, Slavery in Vir- 
ginia, 92. 

Virginia Company, note on, 35. 

Visitations, archdeaconal, 37. 

117 ALES, emigration from, 68. 
'' Wampum. — See Currency. 

War, Revolutionary, topics, xxxix; account, 
137-160 ; of 1812, topics, xlii ; account, 
212-225; Mexican, topics, xliv; satirized, 
271 ; Civil, topics, xlv ; account, 303-335 ; 
Spanish, topics, xlvi ; account, 373-392. 

Warville, Brissot de. The West, 166; 
Neiv Travels, 168. 

Washington, George, Braddock's De- 
feat, 103 ; Writings, 105, 151 ; REPORT 
OF THE Battle of Princeton, 149; 
praise of, 159; Democratic view of, 181; 
inauguration, 181. 

Washington, city, capture of, 218 ; during 
the Civil War, 311 ; Treaty of, 355. 

Waterfalls, in Virginia, 13. 

Watertown, founded, 47; dam at, 75. 



Wellington, Duke of, on peace of 1814, 224. 

West, topics, xxxix ; frontier life, topics, xlii ; 
pilgrims, 163 ; description of, 166 ; land- 
holding, 167; Northwest Ordinance, 169 ; 
religious life, 231 ; farm life, 237 ; aboli- 
tion, 242; political abolition, 263 ; Oregon 
Trail, 268 ; California, 276 ; Kansas, 287 ; 
Lincoln, 291 ; soldiers, 318 ; Indians, 366. 
— See also Colonies, French, Indians, 
Territories and States by name. 

Whale, found at Cape Cod, 76. 

Wheelwright, John, note on, 55; troubles 
Massachusetts, 55; appeals to the king, 
56; banished, 57; goes to Exeter, 57. 

Whiskey, from Indian corn, 32. 

Whitefield, Rev. George, The Great 
Awakening, 109; visits Harvard, no; 
Continuation of yournal, in. 

Whitehead, W. A., Documents relating to 
the Colonial History of New Jersey, 126. 

White Mountains, noticed by Josselyn, 29. 

Whitney, J. L., Literature of the Nineteenth 
of April, 146. 

Whittier, John Greenleaf, Farewell of 
a Slave Mother, 258; as an aboli- 
tionist, 258 ; Poems, 260, 360 ; " CENTEN- 
NIAL Hymn," 358. 

Wilkinson, Eliza, Southern Lady's 
Experience, 151; Letters, 154. 

Williams, Roger, doctrine, 53 ; banished, 
54 ; founds Providence, 54 ; establishes 
toleration, 54. 

Wilson, Rev. John, anecdote of, 75. 

Wine, trade in, 89; in Virginia, 91. 

Winship, George Parker, The Coronado 
Expedition, 8. 

Winthrop, Fitz-John, papers of, 98. 

Winthrop, John, goes to New England, 45 ; 
New Hampshire, 55; New England 
Life, 74; History of New England, 57, 
76. 

Witchcraft, topics, xxxvi ; a trial for, 82. 

Witherspoon, Rev. John, Conduct of 
THE British Ministry, 138; Miscel- 
laneous Works, 140. 

Wolves, in Salem, 79; in Maryland, 112. 

Women, dress, 20 ; encourage emigrants, 26 ; 
at Plymouth, 40; Anne Hutchinson, 55 ; 



4o8 



Ind 



ex 



in New England churches, 77, 78 ; witch 
trials, 82; in New Netherlands, 87 ; slaves, 
93; at Deerfield, 99; a proper bride, iii ; 
a white servant, 113; pretty creatures, 
115, 116; Eliza Wilkinson, 151 ; fashions, 
165 ; at camp-meeting, 233 ; in New Or- 
leans, 241; abolitionists, 249; Charity 
Bowery, 255 ; slave mother, 258 ; cross- 
ing the plains, 270 ; a lady at Vicksburg, 
320 ; a Yankee negro teacher, 339. 



World, New York, Resumption, 360- 

363- 
Writing schools. — See Schools. 
Written work, from sources, xx, xxvii. 

Y Y Z affair, despatches, 191 ; result of, 
A 194. 

YORK, Duke of, aids Church of England, 
62. 



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